THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR COLLEGES BY CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE AUTHOR OF "INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN OUR COLLEGES" OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 1909 GENERAL ( C- COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE Published, February, 1909 THE TROW PRESS, NEW YORK, U. S. A. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I SHALL WE REORGANIZE OUR COLLEGES? CHAP. I. From What Standpoint Shall We Consider Re- organization? 3 CHAP. II. Do the Colleges Need Reorganization? . . 12 CHAP. III. What Shall Be the Objectives of the Reorgan- ized College and of Its Course? ... 14 CHAP. IV. Of What Departments Does the College Consist? 21 PART II THE STUDENT LIFE DEPARTMENT CHAP. V. The College Now a Quasi Public Corporation Not a School Based Upon the Home . . 35 CHAP. VI. The Relation of the College to the Common- wealth 51 CHAP. VII. The Student Life Department and the College Community Life 61 CHAP. VIII. The College Community Life Continued . . 75 CHAP. IX. The College Home Life 90 CHAP. X. The Greek-Letter Fraternities and the College Home 96 CHAP. XI. The College Home and College Vices . . .118 CHAP. XII. The Dominant Position of the Student Life De- partment 146 PART III THE SEPARATE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT CHAP. XIII. The Science of Administration and the Func- tions of the Administrative Department . 165 CHAP. XIV. Administration, Discipline and Order in the Earlier Colleges 181 VI Table of Contents CHAP. XV. CHAP. XVI. CHAP. XVII. CHAP. XVIII. CHAP. XIX. CHAP. XX. CHAP. XXI. CHAP. XXII. CHAP. XXIII. CHAP. XXIV. CHAP. XXV. CHAP. XXVI. CHAP. XXVII. CHAP. XXVIII. CHAP. XXIX. CHAP. XXX. How Shall We Reorganize the College? The New Primary Unit 185 The Nature of Business Administration and Administrative Departments . . . 200 Bookkeeping and Accounting in the Reorgan- ized College 215 The Use of Blank Forms in the Reorganized College 223 Study and Care of Its Plant by the Reorgan- ized College The College Inventory How the Reorganized College Will Study Its Field 235 240 The Marking System in the Reorganized College 245 Studying the College Waste Heap . . 258 Examinations in the Reorganized College . 266 Discipline in the Reorganized College . .270 The Waiting List in the Reorganized College 275 Advertising and the Publicity Bureau in the Reorganized College 280 Standardization and Uniformity in the Re- organized College 289 Some Final Suggestions as to the Adminis- trative Department 297 The Relation of Administration to the Stu- dent Life in the Reorganized College . 307 The President in the Reorganized College . 313 PART IV SUMMING UP CHAP. XXXI. The Motto and Ideal of the Reorganized College 325 CHAP. XXXII. Resume. The Keynote of the Reorganized College 331 CHAP. XXXIII. Can We Have a New Form of American College and University? .... 367 APPENDIX 375 PREFACE MANY years ago an eminent physician said to me: "The medical profession know substantially nothing about diphtheria, and can save but a small percentage of the stricken. Like other physicians, I am treating the disease empirically, experimenting first with one remedy and then with another, hoping that eventually something will be found which will reduce the terrible fatality. I prescribe the latest proposed remedy, not knowing whether it will meet the case for we are grop- ing in the dark." Recently another physician said to me: "We dread diphtheria less than almost any other disease if treated in time; for since it has been found to be a germ disease, and its antitoxin prepared, the things which were for- merly inexplicable have become perfectly plain." During the past seven years, as I have studied college problems from the standpoint of undergraduates in whom I was personally interested, I have been con- stantly and forcibly impressed with the close resem- blance which the present attitude of college educa- tors and authorities as to their problems bears to the former attitude of physicians as to diphtheria. I have found, also, that the fatalities of the college course have been great, and often inexplicable, and, to my mind, inexcusable; for those fatalities have been largely vii viii Preface mental and moral, in institutions from which such re- sults should not be expected. Meanwhile the college treatment has been strictly empirical, the educators have been " groping in the dark," experimenting upon the characters and futures of splendid young men, and prescribing first one remedy and then another, hoping that something would be found to reduce the fatality; and attempting thus to meet conditions which they had never correctly diagnosed and hence did not under- stand. From the beginning I have felt that there must be some reasonable and sufficient explanation for the entire change in college conditions and results; for the remarkable growth of fraternities, intercollegiate ath- letics and other things which did not complicate and upset the earlier college, but which have played havoc in recent years; and that when these things were under- stood a remedy would also be found. Hence I have been trying to discover and indicate the nature of the trouble and its location in the college body, and to sug- gest a general method of treatment an antitoxin capable of effecting a cure if taken in time and in the right way. Those who prepared the diphtheria antitoxin did not thereby become the only ones who could cure the disease. They merely made plain how physicians should treat their cases. In like manner, if we can locate the causes of the college trouble and point out the general treatment, it will not be necessary to show earnest, thoughtful and learned educators just how they must apply the remedy in cases arising under their own peculiar surroundings. As never before, our col- Preface ix leges to-day possess a wealth of endowment, and teaching ability, and earnestness, and loyalty and self- sacrifice. Yet all these have proved largely impotent and even self-destructive, because the colleges have been "groping in the dark"; but can be made effective if the colleges can be taught how to locate and diagnose their troubles. The college course, like diphtheria, must continue to claim some victims, and largely because they are not "treated in time"; but we may hope greatly to decrease the fatality and improve general results if we can stop the "groping in the dark" and the experimenting, and walk with certain step through evils which we do not fear, since we thoroughly understand them and their nature. CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE. NEW YORK, February i, 1909. PART I SHALL WE REORGANIZE OUR COLLEGES? THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR COLLEGES CHAPTER I FROM WHAT STANDPOINT SHALL WE CONSIDER REORGANIZATION? NOT long ago a candid and thoughtful professor in one of our smaller colleges, after a discussion of some of the crudities of the present college administration as they appear to a business man, asked: "If you had the opportunity to reorganize our colleges, upon what plan would you proceed?" This simple question presented an old subject in an entirely new light, and the answer was instant: " Along the lines of the best modern corporate reorganizations; with the same objects, by the same methods, and avail- ing ourselves of similar human agencies, but all adapted to college conditions." For a quarter of a century we have been familiar with business and corporate re- organizations. The law governing them is well under- stood, and the great profession of the certified public accountant, at first based upon the experience of the English chartered accountants, has largely grown out of the reorganizations and consolidations which have included more than ninety per cent of our railroad mileage and substantially all our great trusts and 3 4 The Reorganization of Our Colleges business and manufacturing concerns. Furthermore, these reorganizations and consolidations have been largely, especially as to their legal features, under the charge of college men who have been familiar with every detail. If, then, our colleges can be reorganized upon sub- stantially the lines with which we are conversant in business and corporate affairs, we shall have two de- cided advantages: first, we can make use of well-estab- lished principles which have been worked out at infinite cost of time and money by our great captains of in- dustry whose thinking and doing run side by side and by the lawyers, accountants and business assistants whom they have called to their aid; and, second, since many of the leaders of this great army of skilled re- organizers are college men, and hence more or less experts in college affairs, their services can be made as directly available in the affairs of Alma Mater as in those of a railroad or business corporation. Moreover, almost every large institution of higher learning has upon its board of trustees the chief of some great and well-organized business concern. If these men can be made to appreciate that their own college needs their aid in reorganizing her affairs along the very lines with which they are familiar in their own business, at least we shall have found competent and sympathetic ex- perts and advisers acquainted -alike with local con- ditions and with modern business methods. This book, then, is intended to lift college reorganiza- tions to the plane of the best with which we are familiar in the business world; for often college ideals and re- The Standpoint oj Reorganization 5 suits are far below the best business practice and results. The former are frequently crude, incomplete and unsatisfactory, while the latter are increasingly systematic and scientific. But if we are to follow busi- ness methods we must thoroughly analyze our subject to make sure that there is a necessity for reorganization; that there are important and permanent objects to be gained thereby; that there are causes responsible for present conditions which can be removed; and that there are methods which have proved sufficient in other fields to solve similar problems arising from substantially the same causes and agencies and applicable, with proper modifications, to college affairs. To understand how such methods can be applied in our colleges, we must analyze business conditions and processes so that we may comprehend their results in other fields and judge of their applicability in the college field. In "Individual Training in Our Colleges" I at- tempted to show the history, content and purposes of our older colleges, and the evils and shortcomings of our present institutions arid their lack of system and fore- sight all from the standpoint of the undergraduate, who is either the victim of this lack of system or the victor notwithstanding it; or, as a distinguished United States senator once said: "I love my Alma Mater for all that she has enabled me to be and to do in spite of her." Much of the earlier book is germane to the present discussion, but repetition will be avoided with care, and reference made only when absolutely necessary. Many matters herein considered are applicable 6 The Reorganization of Our Colleges chiefly to the undergraduates of the college proper, and not to those who are in the graduate schools, although it is not always easy to draw the line ; for the distinction between our colleges and universities, never very clear, becomes constantly more and more complicated in fact, when judged from the standpoint of the undergraduate. On the one hand we find one Southern university, so called, advertising that it "prepares young men and women for college," and on the other we discover that even the Association of American Universities has no very definite notion of what should qualify an institu- tion to become a member of the Association. At first it "made the existence of a strong graduate department the sole condition of membership." But the report of its Committee on Membership made in 1907 recom- mends that professional courses shall be preceded by at least one year of college work. 1 Yet only eighteen institutions have been found eligible for membership upon a not too strict enforcement of such easy qualifications leaving at least 175 more of our so-called universities which cannot yet comply with the conditions for membership thus laid down. In other words, in this matter there is but little in the name. We must frankly admit that with us the words " college" and "university" have no fixed and definite meaning and can convey no exact notion of the content or cur- riculum of any institution of whose official name they form a part "As was pointed out in the Second Annual Report of the President of the Foundation, the words 'college' and 'uni- 1 See Appendix No. I. The Standpoint of Reorganization 7 versity ' have no well settled meaning in America, nor is the sphere of higher education by any means carefully denned. As a result the degree-giving institutions in these countries present every variety of educational and administrative complexity. Even the well-informed educator is apt to speak of our colleges and universities as if they formed a homogeneous species conforming more or less clearly to some typical condition. Not only is this not the fact, but these institutions do not even fall into any definite number of such species. There is no method of classification which, when applied to the thousand American and Canadian de- gree-conferring institutions, will enable the student to divide them into clear species. Whatever criterion is chosen will result in placing some institutions in company to which they are not entitled to belong." * The illustrations of the valuelessness of any ordinary methods of comparison are given at length in the Bulletin. For these see Appendix No. II. The eco- nomic losses arising from this lack of uniformity, and the lessons to be drawn from it, will be considered in Chapter XXVI, where I shall have occasion to refer to the adverse influence of this uncertainty upon all edu- cational interests. It is sufficient at this time to point out how this lack of uniformity complicates the prob- lems of the reorganizer. At least eighty per cent of our students are in institutions with more or less of graduate courses institutions which are already uni- versities or are putting on the university garb, as they understand it. Moreover, in the university there is a constant tendency to shift the center of the academic community from the arts faculty (college) to the pro- fessional or graduate schools, and we must have a plan 1 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bulle- tin No. Two, p. i. 8 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges of reorganization flexible enough to cover such con- stantly changing conditions. For example, within twelve years the proportion of college students of the University of Michigan has altered from about fifty per cent of the whole to about thirty-five per cent. The subject is further complicated by the fact that the state universities are growing relatively much faster than the private institutions, which have long been and still are the standards by which too many persons, especially at the East, judge all our institutions of higher learning. Shortly before his death, President W. R. Harper, of Chicago University, expressed it as his opinion that "no matter how liberally the private institution might be endowed, the heritage of the future, at least in the West, is to be the state university." The following comparison shows how rapid is this gain of the state universities: 1896-7 1906-7 Increase Attendance at 15 State universities 16,414 34,770 112% Attendance at 15 representative Eastern col- leges and universities 18,331 28,631 56% Increase of attendance during same period in representative private institutions in the Middle West ' 58% But these figures may be misleading. The dean of an important Western university writes: " In large part this increase is due to the new lines of work. The state university is becoming more and more a department store, to which new counters are added as often as anyone suggests an attractive line to offer. Compared to the Eastern institutions, within equivalent courses, I doubt if there has been as great increase in numbers. Cer- 1 President MacLean, of Iowa State University, before Presidents' Meeting, October 31, 1907. The Standpoint oj Reorganization 9 tainly the great increase in the Middle West private institu- tions has been due in good part to the addition of music schools, special courses, etc. The old time work, or culture courses, have grown in the state universities and the Western private institutions far less than is believed." Furthermore, the rapid growth and improvement of the public high school and the development of the technical schools add other elements of complication. At the same time our colleges are often trying to vie in scientific equipment with the state universities and the technical schools. Because of these and other variances, it is quite im- possible to draw a clear distinction between the college and the university so far as relates to the conditions which surround each student. Therefore I shall use the word "college" in its generic sense, as applying to those students who are getting their higher education under conditions and surroundings which are essen- tially comprehended within the term "college life," as distinguished from those men who are pursuing a pro- fessional or technical course divorced from anything like true college conditions or surroundings. In this large sense the surroundings of the graduate and pro- fessional students living and working in a college town and in or around a campus may approximate more nearly to college conditions than do those of the under- graduates of an urban college which has no campus, or well-organized athletics, or other student activities which tend to weld the student body into a sympathetic and homogeneous mass. Hence the word "college" will be used to apply to those students, no matter what their course, who are living more or less under college io The Reorganization oj Our Colleges conditions and surroundings, as those words are familiarly used; and the words "college" and "uni- versity" will often be used interchangeably. These very great differences between our institutions of higher learning have several constant and important bearings upon any proposed reorganization. First. There can be no safe generalizations based upon our present knowledge of prevalent conditions. The isolated and unconnected reports upon the student situation which have been made by various institutions are largely worthless for scientific use, because the underlying conditions of the particular institution are not clearly set forth so that we can judge of their real applicability to other institutions, or even to that insti- tution at some other period. In other words, we have no scientific and reliable data comprehensive enough to cover the widely varying conditions of which we have just spoken. For this reason any reorganization must be largely tentative, halting and incomplete, for it must, in considerable part, be founded upon its own investi- gations and statistics to be made in the future. To be of scientific rather than of local value, these investiga- tions must be made hereafter along the same lines and at the same time in widely scattered institutions, so that the local and underlying elements may be taken into account in the final generalizations. Second. Not only are there many kinds of institu- tions, but there are as many grades of excellence in each kind. Some are doing splendid work in their own line, and others are equally weak or even vicious; and there are all degrees between these extremes. Some The Standpoint oj Reorganization n colleges are strong in one set of influences which tend to turn out well-rounded graduates, and at the same time lamentably lacking in others. Hence the reor- ganizer must make a careful study of local elements of weakness and strength before he can safely proceed far with his plans. Third. As will be more fully shown hereafter, these mat- ters are largely outside of the realm of pure pedagogy. Fourth. Not all the things complained of in this book are true of any one institution, although they are in part true of almost all. Yet it does not follow that because they are not true in one institution or class of institutions they are not true in others. Nor does it fol- low that because an institution is not affected by one set of evils it may not be grossly wanting in other respects. For this very reason the use of names will usually be avoided. Otherwise grave injustice might be done to some splendid institution by calling attention to a fault which it happens to illustrate, while failing to give it credit for its many excellencies. Moreover, it does not follow that any conditions, good, bad or indifferent, are permanent in any particular college. Nothing is more striking than this constant local change within a com- paratively short period. Hence a thorough knowledge of the conditions which prevailed a few years ago may be of very little value in determining the present situ- ation. Above all, let us beware how we judge of prevalent conditions by those which we knew even in the recent past, or of the general situation by that which exists in our own Alma Mater as we think that we know it. CHAPTER II DO THE COLLEGES NEED REORGANIZATION? No evidence as to the necessity of a radical reorgani- zation of our colleges is required, for it is a basic rule of law that no proof need be given as to that which is admitted or not denied. Our college authorities, without exception, admit the need of some reorganization, especially in other insti- tutions than their own. As individuals they may differ as to details, but they agree that something is very wrong. But the men who have come closest to the life of the students, and have pondered most carefully upon student problems, admit at once the truth of the arraign- ment of college shortcomings, and then, with startling earnestness, point out further evils and suggest new lines of thought to which attention had not previously been drawn. Before we finish we shall find plenty of evidence to prove that a reorganization is imperative. But if there be such a need of reorganization, then the failure, long ago, to grapple with the evils which must every day be adversely affecting the lives of the best of the rising generation, and to analyze them thoroughly, and force a solution of them, is one of the terrible crimes of the nineteenth century. This need of reorganization is as well recognized abroad as it is here. The London Times, in an edi- torial in April, 1907, said: 12 Is Reorganization Needed? 13 " The two ancient universities are once again on trial and cannot escape the obligation of putting their house in order. They will be given reasonable time for self-examination and self-reform. Failing in this, there will be an exhaustive inquiry and drastic compulsion from without." We need not search far for the chief reasons why college conditions are unsatisfactory and a reorganiza- tion is desirable. We readily understand that no great business can be successful where not more than one of its five or six chief constituent departments is properly conducted, where another is theoretically but not actually successful, and where the others are misunder- stood and neglected. It makes no difference how well the manufacturing department is run, if there are no proper shipping, sales or credit bureaus; nor how good an operating force a railroad may have, if its repair or auditing or financial bureaus are not sharply differen- tiated and properly managed. Yet this is the mistake which the colleges are making; and their unaccountable failure to organize and coordinate all of their great de- partments and to make each do its full duty is the chief reason why they need a reorganization. No one of their departments can do its best work if the others are not doing their full share to make the whole institution do its great duty. The colleges must continue to be inherently weak so long as they do not provide for a proper and complete correlation and coordination of all their activities and forces, whether financial, pedagogical, administrative, executive, or relating to the personal lives of the students. CHAPTER III WHAT SHALL BE THE OBJECTIVES OF THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE AND OF ITS COURSE? BEFORE we can proceed far we must agree upon the objects that we are to hold steadily in view, and for which, if necessary, we are to sacrifice old-fashioned methods and ways, and every unimportant notion, no matter how well intrenched, which will hinder us in a satisfactory reorganization. Let us agree, then, if we can, that the objectives of the college course, as distinguished from the objects of the institution, are: (i) The individual training of the students, to make them, as nearly as may be, clean, cultured, forceful and resourceful solvers of the problems which will arise in their relations (a) to the state and to their fellows in the community, (b) to their own families and those otherwise personally dependent upon them, and (c) to their own higher moral, religious, intellectual and phys- ical natures. In other words, the college course is primarily to enable the young student to find himself and to train him for efficient citizenship in the broadest sense of the word; and not primarily for scholarship, or athletics or social polish. To be sure, every ado- lescent who comes under Alma Mater's fostering care 14 The Objectives oj the Reorganized College 15 needs, in a varying degree, to be trained in scholarship, physical efficiency and manly graces, but the college course should stand first of all for making each student an all-around and forceful member of the community in his future years. (2) Not for present stuffing, but for training the in- dividual so that he shall acquire the habit, power and desire to grow and develop, mentally and morally, what- ever his future surroundings may be. (3) To cast aside mere studying for a diploma, or rank, or marks, or any other temporary or counterfeit aims, and, even if the student be but going into busi- ness, to build for studious and scientific training and character. (4) And hence to train in the broadest way for the all-around man, for the mens sana in sano corpore, and not be content with a physique which, because of neg- lect on the one hand or of overtraining or overstraining on the other, cannot meet the demands of modern con- ditions and competitions. These great objects and purposes must be molded into the very grain and essence of each institution, so that they shall be a vital part of the college atmosphere which each student must breathe. No influence is un- important which can hinder or help these great objec- tives, and every such influence must be studied, and, if necessary, dealt with by a separate department thor- oughly equipped for that very purpose. Our colleges are but a part of the great social and economic structure of the nation and community and governed largely by the same rules and principles, which 1 6 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges therefore must be strictly studied and wisely followed if the colleges would attain to their highest usefulness. Hence the colleges owe it as a first duty to their students to work out their own economic, sociological and do- mestic problems, quite as much as to study these sub- jects only as they relate to the submerged tenth or some other portion of the general community. These objectives of the college course, that is, as to the college results, are not essentially different from those governing a well-organized factory or business estab- lishment. Although in the eyes of the public they may not stand upon so high a moral plane as the colleges, there are many business corporations which in fact get better results and more honest work and have higher ethical and moral standards for the individual than many colleges; and the difference in results arises from the difference in administrative methods and ideals. Some of the ways in which our college administration falls fatally behind that of an ordinary business corpo- ration will be pointed out in succeeding chapters, with suggestions as to changes to be instituted in the colleges in those regards. We must never allow ourselves to mistake a college diploma for a true college education, or a college degree for college training. As we proceed I shall use the words "college education" and "college training" in the broad sense of an education and training for citizen- ship, and as comprehending, therefore, those elements of scholarliness, culture, physical strength and prowess, and pleasing manners, which must be added to the character of each student in order to make him in The Objectives o\ the Reorganized College 17 future years strong, efficient, cultured and clean to the top of his bent. We shall see that it is just this de- velopment, nothing less, which the college owes to everyone to whom she gives her diploma. Surely we can all agree that it is only by keeping these objectives as to the college course clearly before us that we can hope to make the most, mentally, morally, physically and individually, of the student material which enters the doors of the college, or to turn out such material developed to the highest degree to make the best use of its powers in its future work in life. A clear exposition of what the university or college itself should stand for is found in the report submitted on February i, 1908, to the faculty of Columbia Col- lege by Dr. James H. Canfield, after a three months' trip to examine personally the methods of teaching and of discipline (intellectual and other) which are in use in the upper classes or forms of typical English public schools, of English grammar schools and of French Lyce*es; and in the first and possibly the second year of residence in colleges and universities of both England and France in other words, corresponding in the main with the freshman and sophomore years in our colleges: "All modern educational ideals center in a movement which seeks more complete and efficient employment of all human gifts and powers, all natural forces and all material resources, in behalf of national advancement and well-being; by which, of course, is meant the advancement and well- being of every person within the nation. It is an educational ideal which makes for peace, prosperity, and true renown; which believes that the greatness of a state can always be 1 8 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges more accurately measured by the greatness of its teachers than by the number of its regiments, by its scholars rather than by its squadrons. Education which does not recog- nize this movement and has not this end in view, which does not distinctly accept this as its supreme motive, is neither public nor large nor sound nor enduring. Every educational undertaking, from kindergarten to most advanced research, will be tried under this law, and will be approved only as it meets this standard. The world seems to have finally determined that it has little or no time or strength to spend on mere abstractions; it demands that very definite and helpful relations shall be discovered and maintained in all forms of human life and endeavor. "Prince Metternich wisely said, 'All reforms begin at the top.' The university, then, must be the leader in this great undertaking. Leadership is its right and its duty, its privilege and its opportunity. To forfeit this for any reason whatever is simply to fall from grace, to substitute weakness for strength, to cease to give an adequate reason for existence. . . . Every university must set itself the task of satisfying three classes of demands and aspirations: those of the nation, the people at large; those of the students who attach themselves to the institution, and in a certain sense those of all who hope to have the advantages of higher education; and those of its officers. These are given in what is believed to be their order of importance, though it is not easy to create this distinction. But the general welfare certainly stands first, though so indissolubly linked with in- dividual welfare that the two can scarcely be considered apart. The students are given precedence of the officers, because it is mainly for the purpose of their education that colleges are maintained, their time is short, they have but one chance for preparation for active life, and they are the coming generation; while the officers as a body either hold the center of the stage or have already begun to retire slowly toward the exits. The true university is not merely a place where a lad may get an education, but is a seat of wisdom and learning. To this wisdom and learning, willing to serve (which is the first condition of all leadership) the nation turns with a demand for leadership. . . . The students The Objectives oj the Reorganized College 19 need, and very generally desire, effective instruction and stimulating companionship, and reasonable preparation for life. They cannot receive the first unless their instructors of every grade possess remarkable strength of character, unusual mental equipment, careful and thorough prepara- tion, unceasing industry, unflagging zeal, alert and com- pelling consciences, large unselfishness and active sympa- thy. Whole men and wholesome men, men who are sane and strong, men who are broadly informed as well as pos- sessing advanced special training, men who are carrying some share of the public burden, men who are making themselves and their work felt in the world about them; these are the true Masters of Arts, no matter what other degree they may carry. . . . The needs and demands of worthy officers constitute the third form of drain upon the resources and strength of the university corporation. What these men ask is opportunity to discover truth and oppor- tunity to impart it. The first means equipment of every kind: books, apparatus, laboratories, assistants and a fair amount of time for the proper and effective use of these. The second means a well-arranged curriculum, within which a student can move with considerable freedom of choice, thus bringing together the largest possible number of both teach- ers and taught; with the further provision that, by that form of organization which will throw the least possible burden of administration upon officers of instruction, idle, ignorant, unworthy students may be either quickly reformed or as quickly withdrawn from troublesome and impeding contact with the true life of the university." In other words, our colleges and universities should keep their own ideals high and should turn out clean, strong problem solvers, thereby recognizing and ful- filling their duties to the state, to their founders, to their own officers and to their students. Anything short of this is failure. I shall go further and show that the college, even the private college, is now a distinct agent of the commonwealth and as such has direct duties to 2O The Reorganization oj Our Colleges perform for the state. But throughout our discussion let us keep in mind the distinction between the objects of the college and those of its course, between the in- stitution and the individuals who for the time adminis- ter its affairs or give or receive its benefits. CHAPTER IV OF WHAT DEPARTMENTS DOES THE COLLEGE CONSIST? WE must next consider whether all the forces and de- partments of the colleges have heretofore been properly differentiated, studied and organized, and whether each and all are doing their full part to effectuate the objects of the institution and of its course. For practical purposes the college activities may be roughly divided into six great departments or classes : (a) finances, (b) instruction or pedagogy, (c) administra- tion, (d) the executive, (e) the trustees or board of con- trol, under whatever name, and (/) the student life, or that portion (about ninety per cent) of the undergradu- ates' time not spent in recitations, lectures or other per- sonal contact with their instructors. The student life must be further subdivided into the college community life and the college home or family life. (a) The financial department is often smoothly run by experts who are not pedagogues, and is out of sight and therefore out of mind, except in the treasurer's annual report. It will not require much attention in this dis- cussion. Its chief lesson to us is that it is the only de- partment whose cleavage from the others is sharp and distinct. It is successful largely because no other de- partment feels warranted to interfere in its affairs. Its 21 22 The Reorganization of Our Colleges duties and limitations are well defined and respected, and its results, if it is on a real business basis, are cor- respondingly satisfactory. There should be no difficulty in having a perfect financial system in any college if the finances are under the charge of a well-trained business man. The book- keeping problems are, up to the present time, of the simplest nature, mere cash accounts with no cost ac- counting or other intricate questions. Hence it is nothing to boast of if the books are well kept, and it is something to be ashamed of if they are not so kept. Some institutions have placed their bookkeeping in the hands of skilled accountants, who turn out model annual reports, showing full trial balances, balance sheets, detailed statements of receipts, disbursements and investments, and have frequent audits of accounts and verification of cash and securities. In such in- stances, at least, we can perceive how satisfactorily the best modern business methods can be applied in college affairs. In the state universities there must be a full annual accounting to the state, including the sum paM to each professor, etc. Our private institutions may be roughly divided in this regard into those whose books and accounts are open and those which consider themselves the closest kind of private corporations of whose financial affairs practically nothing is known, especially in detail, except to a few of those in control, who are frequently unable and often unwilling to un- derstand bookkeeping and a cost account. In this re- spect the reorganizer can make many improvements both for efficiency and true economy. I shall consider The Departments oj the College 23 at its proper place the question of the extension of the functions of the financial department, so as to embrace a cost-account system for the college factory, a thing practically unknown at the present time. (b) It is not my purpose to discuss at length the in- structional or pedagogical department. In the first place, the topic is a dangerous one for a layman to handle, especially where, as in the present case, it might lead us away from our subject. Moreover, there is the widest divergence of opinion as to the merits among admitted experts. While undoubtedly some of our greatest teachers have been and still are found in college faculties, there are many, well qualified to judge, who insist that as a whole college pedagogy is at present the poorest of all grades. The principal of one of our finest fitting schools recently gave me the following reasons for this assertion. He told of a dean of a well- known law school who said to one of his second-year students who was doing very poor work: "I know of your preparatory school training and that you easily stood at the head of 'your class. I also know your father and that he is a very painstaking and studious lawyer. Why is it, then, that you are not doing better work in your law studies?" The young man replied: "To tell the truth, studious habits will not survive a four years' college course nowadays." The principal insisted that this had been the case with altogether too many others of the very brightest boys that he had sent to college during the past fifteen years; that these boys had been allowed, under college teachers, to degenerate like this young law student, and that this would not 24 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges have happened in so large a proportion of such cases if the average college instructor understood and applied the principles of pedagogy as the teachers in our best kindergartens, and primary, grammar and high schools are now required to. Unfortunately, high-school prin- cipals and parents can cite too many examples to sus- tain their complaint. Judged by this standard, college pedagogy is too frequently a miserable failure, with terrible after results to the state, the individual student and the reputation of all higher learning. Looking at these charges against the quality of college pedagogy from the standpoint of a business man, I am convinced that they are largely true, and I argue it out in about this fashion : Every entering class is carefully looked over by the college coaches and trainers for available candidates for football, base ball, track and other teams, rowing crews, etc., and when such men are found they are carefully trained in every detail of the sport. So in many colleges every entering freshman is carefully canvassed by the various fraternities, and if he is available he is made a member, and immediately en- ters into a course of careful training, under competent fraternity coaches, to make him an honor to the fra- ternity. This belongs to the college home life as we shall see. Yet I cannot now remember any college where there are pedagogical coaches who, to the like extent, canvass every entering freshman, to get his measure as a student and to make sure that he knows how to study; and if not, whose duty it is to teach him the fine points of the college training in their pedagogi- cal department. Such coaching, if given at all, is left The Departments oj the College 25 to the student life department and is widely and effi- ciently performed therein. Why not in the pedagogical department if its standards are high? This is not theoretical. For many years I have known intimately every freshman who entered my own chapter of my fraternity. Their ability to study and keep up has been carefully canvassed by the upper classmen, and some freshmen have been found who practically did not know how to study, but who ear- nestly wished to learn. Yet the college provides no pedagogical coach, and the luckless freshman, who may not appreciate his own weakness, must turn to the upper classmen for help. In too many colleges the pedagogi- cal formula is "root, freshman, or die" by the " busting out" process. Yet many institutions spend almost or quite a hundred thousand dollars annually upon athletics which are largely the coaching and training of a few likely athletic candidates. Good pedagogical practice would seem to demand that the college itself should spend at least one fifth of this amount in coach- ing and training its freshmen in the things which would make them better material for their instructors to work upon in the later years. But as I said before, this is dangerous ground for a layman. The shortcomings of college pedagogy and pedagogical methods have been carefully and fairly discussed by many experts in books and reviews. The latest is "The American College: A Criticism," by Abraham Flexner, whose stringent criticisms from the pedagogical side are apparently fully justified. But it seems to me that the fault lies not so much with 26 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges college pedagogy as with the failure to draw a sharp distinction between pure pedagogy and the other de- partments of the college. Our mental confusion as to the functions of the departments of pedagogy and ad- ministration, and our utter neglect to study and elevate the student life department are chiefly responsible for the present pedagogical ineffectiveness and meager edu- cational results. But until the conditions are radically changed college pedagogy must continue to have a dis- proportionately large number of such failures charged to its account. (c) There are some promising patches of adminis- tration, some hopeful beginnings, in some institutions, but there is no such thing in any college as an up-to-date and separate administrative department comprehen- sively covering all parts of the institution. Yet when this is said to a college professor he looks dazed and asks: "Well, what do you mean by college administra- tion, and how could you improve upon what we have here?" The answer is not difficult: "Wipe off the slate, and commence over again. Few college pro- fessors have the least notion of what modern adminis- tration means or accomplishes, and therefore in most cases they cannot reorganize their present attempts at administration. The college must learn about the real article, and then build from the very bottom upon the foundation of this new ideal of a separate adminis- trative department. The present system has shown its insufficiency by the pass to which it has brought the college and its reputation and the reputation of college pedagogy. It is easier, safer and cheaper to build The Departments oj the College 27 anew than to patch up." These may seem harsh words, but they will appear mild before we have completed our exposition of what business administration is and does, and what the college administration is not, and what it fails to accomplish. In Part III, I shall show how the modern business administrative department has grown up and what are its functions, what it has done and is doing, and how indispensable it has become; and also how the college, as a whole and in each of its parts, is handicapped by the failure to provide an up-to-date administrative department along the lines of an or- dinary manufacturing concern dealing with a like num- ber of men and with interests correspondingly diverse. (d) I shall postpone the discussion of the college executive department until Chapter XXXIII. By that time we shall have studied the reorganized college in detail, and be better able to understand the functions and duties of its executive. (e) Nor shall I treat at length of the board of trustees or board of control in the scores of different forms in which it appears. Its powers and duties are usually defined by statute or charter and cannot be easily modified. For an excellent discussion of this subject the reader is commended to Chapter II of "College Administration," by Dr. Charles F. Thwing, President of Western Reserve University and Adelbert College, The Century Company, 1900. (/) The student life comprehends about ninety per cent of the undergraduate's time, and the instructional department the remaining ten per cent. That is to say, the average student does not spend ten per cent of his 28 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges whole year in direct touch with his teachers. There are 1 68 hours in the week, and usually the college, as dis- tinguished from the technical or graduate school, does not advise an undergraduate to carry more than five courses of three hours each per week. Often only four such courses are required. Thus, without cuts or cations, ten per cent with the professors is a good average, and frequently these hours may be spent in lecture courses chosen to produce the least possible draft upon the student's attention in the lecture room or upon his time outside of it. We should have expected that this ninety per cent would be carefully analyzed and studied by the teachers whose work in the ten per cent must be greatly affected by the influences that govern the ninety per cent. At least that would have been done by a business concern. Assume that A and B, two boys of equal capabil are in school together and that A is kept strictly and wisely at his home work by his parents, and compelled to attend to his school duties; while B is given the use of an automobile and is allowed to put all kinds of out- side distractions, or even vices, ahead of his school duties. Under these circumstances the teacher, with one half as much exertion, accomplishes twice as much with A as B. Hence the home factors of A to B are as four to one. This is precisely what is going on in all our colleges. The ninety per cent of the student life has been and still is ignored and not studied, and the in- structors wonder why the effectiveness of their teaching is about one quarter of what it ought to be. They have not thought out the true nature of the student life, The Departments oj the College 29 nor its effect upon their own work, nor the way to reach and affect it. But if we are to bring about a reorganiza- tion along modern business lines we must know all about this student life department and its bearing upon the other factors of our problem, and determine how it is to be handled in the future. These things will be treated in Part II. Because all of these departments (except the board of trustees) were originally almost exclusively under the direct personal control of the college president, and be- cause in the lower schools the instructor is the disci- plinarian, and because we still think of our colleges as modeled after the home and not after the community, we cling tenaciously to the notion that there is some in- herent connection between instruction and the college administration, and that a trained pedagogue must have charge of the discipline and administration. This is essentially fallacious and wasteful. In our reorganized institution we shall recognize that our college pedagogy should now be pedagogy pure and simple, as in the nan universities, and provide accordingly. We shall also understand that few of our questions of ad- ministration are essentially pedagogical. Most of these are the problems, requiring systematic organization, which arise wherever there is a clashing of the diverse interests of large numbers of persons working in a common pursuit, whether under a great business, man- ufacturing or quasi public corporation, or in an army or navy, or in any other great aggregation of men. Until recently the numbers in our colleges were very small and hence there were very few and simple ad- 30 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges ministrative questions to solve. At the end of her first 125 years Harvard's classes numbered hardly twenty- five members each. In 1850 (212 years) she had 286 undergraduates, while Princeton had 232 and Columbia 179. At the same time the simple social conditions, and the lack of surplus wealth and of facilities for travel, and the absence of large cities made all problems of living comparatively simple. We shall perceive that it is not lack of teaching forces or ability, but numbers and size and intricacy and failure to understand the basic change in our college concept which are upsetting our college economy. As we proceed in our investigations we shall realize that our present need of reorganization in large part comes from the fact that, quite outside of pedagogical conditions, the administration is terribly crude, un- scientific and insufficient, and that the student life is too often neglected, unstudied and misunderstood, and the executive hampered, and that true financial economy and system are disregarded, and that no satisfactory re- sults can be expected while there is such a lack of intelligent coordination. Within the last generation, the science of medicine has been immensely improved, and trained nursing has become a science. Candid physicians admit that trained nursing is now more than half the battle and that medicine would not be what it is without the aid of the trained nurse. What modern medicine would have been without trained nursing can be seen in modem college teaching, for it has not perceived that adminis- tration, and especially the student life, should have The Departments oj the College 31 stood in the same relation to it that nursing does to medicine. But instead of being such aids, the admin- istrative and student life departments actually have been clogs. They are dead weights which pedagogy has been dragging behind it, while it wondered that, at a time when its teachers were admittedly improving, the results upon the students were more and more un- satisfactory. Pedagogy is the skilled physician who handles many and diverse cases, but administration and the student life are the departments which have charge of the in- dividual patients outside of the times of the physician's visits, and which insure the best results from those visits. The doctor has charge of the case, but he has many other patients and duties, and must have the ser- vices of skilled assistants or nurses who can insure that his instructions are followed and who can have charge of the individual patients during the intervals between visits. In earlier days the instructor lived in the college family or college home, but not so now. As modern medicine is largely dependent upon modern nursing, so the highly specialized pedagogues of our modern colleges will be found ta need the services of an agency which supplements their work and makes it effective. For her first century and a quarter Harvard assigned a tutor to each class, who taught that class in all its subjects for four years, subject to the small amount of additional instruction given by the president and the one or more professors. When the college was thus administered there was no need of any supple- mentary coaching for the pedagogues. 32 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Our chief need in reorganizing is to resuscitate, re- construct and make potent these two great departments of administrative and student life, now dead and useless or worse and to restore the executive to its normal functions. PART II THE STUDENT LIFE DEPARTMENT CHAPTER V THE COLLEGE NOW A QUASI PUBLIC CORPORATION NOT A SCHOOL BASED UPON THE HOME IN a tract entitled "Looking Backward," Helen Hunt Jackson showed how the Indian pappoose, carried on its mother's back and always looking back- ward, saw things not as they approached but only after they had passed and were receding, and that this was the plight of the whole Indian race under our criminally wrong system of wardship. In our colleges the poor old pedagogical mother is still lugging two strapping infants who, looking back- ward, exhaust her strength and make her less efficient in the duties which she is best suited to perform, while their own education and growth are as constantly stunted. The powers and efficiency of pedagogy will be doubled by the growth of one of these children, ad- ministration, to the strength, work and duties of an adult. The same is as true of the other child, the student life. When it, too, shall have been developed, we shall have the efficiency and general usefulness of the college augmented by two splendid powers which will work with the enthusiasm of youth toward the com- mon good, but especially toward the solution of the new questions of administration and of the internal and organic content of the student life. These new de- 35 36 The Reorganization of Our Colleges partments must together assume the solution of many things which pedagogy has long since abandoned in despair although she has not always realized this, nor frankly confessed it even if she did realize it. The college as a whole, the individual undergraduates for whom, in fact, it was organized and exists and the cause of higher education, citizenship and scholarship must suffer until the departments of administration and the student life exercise their proper functions. This leads us, then, to the careful study, first, of the student life, so that we may understand its essentially dual nature, its real place in the college economy and in the education of the embryo citizen, and the steps necessary under our reorganization plan to put this powerful factor in condition to do its great part in college work; and, second, of the separate administra- tive department. But before we can understand the present meaning of these departments we must fully realize the change that has taken place in the very nature of the college itself. It is still spoken of as merely an educational in- stitution, and thus is put upon a par in our minds with the ordinary school or with the earlier college. This was true in the old boarding-school-ecclesiastical periods when the college was a small poverty-stricken aggregation of teachers and taught, which had no funds of its own to supply its constantly increasing wants, but was largely dependent for money upon the Colonial legislature, with its politico-religious notions, and which derived the mass of its pupils from private schools or tutors and not from a public-school system. The College a Quasi Public Corporation 37 But now many universities and colleges are powerful and rich corporations, with rights, properties and funds guaranteed under the broadest charters and often under the terms of the state constitution. Several universities have property enough to pay in full the debt of any state in the Union, except Massachusetts, or of any city, except New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago or Cleveland; and the yearly receipts and ex- penditures of many of the states fall far below those of some of the rich corporations which we call colleges or universities. Hence we must come to realize that these great in- stitutions no longer resemble the school after which they were originally modeled, but have grown and developed into a new form of state or community, and should be thought of rather as bodies politic than as bodies cor- porate. They have the following characteristics, among others, of a political or municipal community or corporation: (a) a fixed location or boundary within urhich their power is substantially supreme; (b) rights guaranteed by law, and often by the state constitution, beyond the control of even the state legislature; (c) large investments in fixed improvements, for public, not private, uses; (d) large annual incomes devoted to public, not private, purposes ; (e) the right to tax for their own general purposes those who dwell within their borders and share their benefits; yet (/) relief in large part from the taxation of their own property; (g) a lack of power to compel any individual to remain within their sphere of influence; yet (h) the right to lay down rules to govern, within certain limitations, the personal lives and 38 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges actions of their student citizens, who, so long as they re- main students, have well-defined rights and duties toward the college state or community, their fellow-students and their college homes, which relations resemble closely those of the citizen of any ordinary community or state. The colleges are not charitable or business corporations any more than the state or community, which also have many charitable and business functions. It must be admitted that now our great universities and colleges much more closely resemble municipal cor- porations (using the word "municipal" in the broad sense of a state, or of a city or some lesser governmental corporation within the state) than they do any other form of corporate existence or entity known to the law. Hence it will be profitable at this point to follow out this analogy to its legitimate conclusions, for it may very seriously affect. the plans which we must pursue in order to bring about a scientific and permanent reor- ganization. This change of form, from that of a private corpo- ration to one which is quasi public, is not unique nor confined to the colleges, but is something which is going on all the time and with which we are fully acquainted in other instances. For example, our first railroad charter was granted as a part of a well-defined policy which the State of New York had been carrying out for a generation in developing her lines of internal com- munication, and was closely modeled after the turnpike company charters of which several hundred had been already granted. The new road was intended to be merely a private corporation owning and keeping in The College a Quasi Public Corporation 39 order, for use by all comers, a turnpike with fixed rails, and was given the right "to regulate the time and manner in which goods and pas- sengers shall be transported, taken and carried on the same, as well as the manner in which they shall collect all tolls and dues on account of transportation and carriage, and shall have power to erect and maintain toll houses and other buildings for the accommodation of their concerns as they may deem suitable to their interest;" also, "from time to time to fix, regulate and receive the tolls and charges by them to be received for transportation of prop- erty and persons." 1 Shortly thereafter twelve further charters were granted by the New York legislature under which other roads were built; and these roads, then ten in number, were consolidated in 1853 to form the New York Cen- tral Railroad, running from Albany to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, with a total mileage of about 400 miles of single track. These poverty-stricken turnpike railroads were not a menace to the state. They had no political or finan- cial power. They were experimental innovations and suppliants, and had not yet become the most powerful entity in the state, arrogantly exclaiming (as did the head of this system in later years): "The people be damned. We'd rather carry hogs than people." The gradual changes by which these quasi turnpike railroads, seldom over thirty miles in length, have de- veloped into the huge modem trunk line are substan- tially the same as those by which our primitive colleges >N. Y. Laws of 1826, Chap. 253. 40 The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges have developed into our huge modern universities. As the years have passed the railroads have ceased to be private concerns and have assumed more and more the character of public corporations, exercising exclusive franchises received from the state. They have, with other similar corporations, grown into a class by them- selves, which for want of a better name we call public- service or public-utilities corporations. In precisely the same way, and without our realizing it, the colleges have changed, in fact and in law, to quasi municipal corporations with a closer resemblance to the state or community, in their duties, rights, powers and content, than to anything else; and with these new powers have developed new responsibilities. In following out this resemblance it will be found, also, that the relations which the citizen or student of the college bears to it are no longer those of the board- ing school based upon the home, but are rather of the same threefold nature which the citizen of the state or community bears to it, namely : first, to the state and its government; second, to his fellow-citizens as a body or in a business, professional or community way; and third, to his own home and to those to whom he bears kinship or other intimate social relations. First, in his relation to the state or government, the citizen is governed almost entirely by well-defined laws which are in the form of written statutes or ordinances. In the second relation of citizen to citizen, the indi- vidual is governed principally by contract, comity, civility and rules governing business and personal con- tact that is, by usage and custom, with but little direct The College a Quasi Public Corporation 41 interference from the state by written law or ordinance. It is easy to perceive how his community or business or professional life is apparently of vastly greater impor- tance to the ordinary individual than his political or civic relations to the commonwealth; although in one sense the latter are at the very foundation of the former. There is no law requiring a man to pay his debts by bank checks nor to receive payments in that kind of private currency. Yet ninety-five per cent of our ex- changes are made by the privately agreed medium of checks rather than by the publicly ordained coin or bank or United States currency. Substantially all the immense transactions of our commerce and daily busi- ness affairs are within the realm of private contract, with an appeal to the courts only in case of dispute. In other words, in his business, professional or community life the citizen is governed, so far as he is governed at all, by custom or good manners, or by written or oral contracts, which in turn are more likely to be affected and governed by an enlightened public sentiment or even by the newspapers than by any statute or written ordinance. In the third relation, that of the home and the per- sonal friend, the citizen is substantially a law unto him- self, unless riotous or other public misconduct passes the limits set by the law and subjects him to its penal- ties. This privacy of the home, with the right under its own rules to govern its own inmates, is one of our most ancient and cherished rights. Three hundred years ago Sir Edward Coke held that "The house of everyone is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his de- 42 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges fense against injury and violence as for his repose." He had in mind the fact that within his own castle the English lord was supreme, except in certain matters as to which he owed fealty to his overlord. In other words, the will of its head or of its older or stronger members is the law of the home, so long as the public peace or public rights are not infringed. In many re- spects the written law, and even the constitution and the bill of rights, halt at the door of the home and are inapplicable within its portals; for many things are not crimes when done within the seclusion of the home which would be punishable as such if done in public. Thus we see that the citizen of the state lives under the threefold control (a) of the written statute or or- dinance promulgated by the general or local govern- ment; (b) of public sentiment, or usage or contract, arranged between man and man; and (c) of the rules and limitations of his own home, for which he himself is mainly responsible. These various kinds of regula- tions governing the conduct of the citizen belong to different classes, with different powers and punish- ments, acting upon different planes, and upon different sides of the citizen's character and upon different phases of his life, and through widely differing instru- mentalities. He may be large minded or narrow minded in his political or civic relations to the general or local government, or in his business or professional relations, or in his attitude toward his home and his friends. He may be distinguished, or quite the con- trary, in any one or more of these relations; but the fact that the life of the ordinary breadwinner is lived upon The College a Quasi Public Corporation 43 these three planes should be kept clearly before our minds as we study the quasi college state and its student citizens. The statute law fills but a small part in the life of the law-abiding citizen, who performs, as a matter of course, most of his duties toward the state. The major part of his time is divided between the community and home planes of his life. Reform in the domain of the state must be brought about by beneficent and wise laws and a rigid enforcement of the written law, backed by a public sentiment which compels all executive, ad- ministrative, legislative and judicial forces to do their duty. Reform in the sphere of the business or com- munity life must be brought about by elevating public sentiment and then enforcing it by common consent. But reform within the home must come through the dominant powers therein; that is, the parents or other heads of the family, backed oftentimes by a consensus of that particular local division of the social order, not so broad as to be called public sentiment, that some specific change is desirable. In other words reform comes in each plane through the power which is domi- nant therein in the state through the statute law; in the community through public consent or private agree- ment; in the home through the heads thereof. But through all these planes runs something corresponding to an enlightened public sentiment. Nor, in tracing the resemblance of the college to the community, must we overlook the striking dissimilarity among governmental corporations of the same class. As nations of equal rank differ among themselves in 44 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges constitutions, laws, customs and peoples, so our forty- six sovereign states have constitutions, laws and cus- toms which differ in many particulars; each county within a state may make dissimilar rules for its citizens ; each city within the county or state may be governed by a charter and ordinances varying from those of a neigh- boring city; each minor municipal subdivision has the power to regulate its affairs so that in some respects they will vary from that of any of its fellows ; and each home is a law unto itself. This dissimilarity does not change the essential similarity of the class in general structure, purposes and powers, and yet must be carefully re- garded in considering the individuals of the class. We find this same startling dissimilarity between our various colleges, universities and technical schools, in rights, powers, charters, customs and internal govern- ment and rule, but as striking a similarity in intent and content. The great objects of the various institutions remain substantially the same, but, like the various states and other municipalities, each institution must work out its own objects in its own way. Hence in our reorganization of the college state, community and home, we must proceed with a con- stant appreciation that there are local differences which must never be lost sight of, and an autonomy which is important because it evinces and typifies the organic life from which it has come. Our reorganization plan must be broad enough to allow for the individual differ- ences in the various institutions to which reference has already been made, and to attain results notwith- standing these differences. The College a Quasi Public Corporation 45 A little further reflection will show us how complete has been this change from the simplicity of the original conception of the boarding-school college based upon the home to the complexity of the modern quasi college state. The earliest New England colleges were designed to be the official theological seminaries of their respective colonies. Harvard was founded because the colonists dreaded "to leave an illiterate ministery to the churches after our present ministers [who had been educated in England] shall lie in the dust.'* ! In Connecticut the original thought was to found " a college in which youth might be fitted for public service in church and state"; but the church before the state, and it was out of this thought that Yale sprang. But the pupils in these colleges, so-called, were mere boys of from twelve to seventeen years of age, and were ruled by Puritan teachers who were considered solely and only as in loco parentis? and as responsible for the college home life and manners of the pupils and for the small amount of the college community life. The evolution from this first form has been a long but complete one, until to-day we find that the students of the college maintain to it, not the relation of children in a home or school, but rather of citizens within a state, and that such relation is threefold: (a) to the central body or government as embodied in the financial, in- structional, administrative and executive departments; (b) to each other in the college community life; and (c) to their intimates in their college homes. Moreover, > "New England's First Fruits," p. i. " Individual Training in Our Colleges," Chap. I-IV. 46 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges the same general classes of rules govern the citizens of this little state or community as control the conduct of the citizens of the ordinary municipal corporation, (a) In their relations toward the college itself and its government, the law is the charter and the written or- dinances which, under the charter, the institution, by its officers, faculty or board of control, may make to regulate its property and affairs and the lives of its students in their relation to it as a quasi state, and not much farther, (b) The larger relation of student to student in the college community life is that of citizen to citizen, and is to be regulated, in most instances, not so much by college ordinances as in the earlier times, when the student's every move was thus controlled but rather by college usages, agreements, customs and good breeding. This portion of the college life must be chiefly controlled by good and clean college conditions and by an enlightened public sentiment which it is the vital interest of the college to raise to the highest pos- sible level. It should accomplish this not by legisla- tion, except as a last resort, but rather by those influ- ences which legitimately enlighten, elevate and enforce public opinion, customs and contracts in business and elsewhere. Certainly of all places in the world it ought not to be difficult, without the use of rigid regulations, to foster and maintain a lofty public sentiment and atmosphere in an American college. Here, if any- where, the consent of the governed ought to be sufficient to put the relations of student to student the college community life upon the highest moral, ethical and refined level. The College a Quasi Public Corporation 47 (c) So to-day, corresponding to the relation of the citizen to his home, there are college homes which are the "fortress and castle" of their inmates, which are not to be stormed from without, but, like ordinary homes, are to be chiefly controlled by the molding in- fluences of those who are at the head of the castle and fortress and manage its affairs, and whose word is the law therein. This similarity of the college state to other municipal corporations is subject to one important qualification. A large proportion of its citizens are legally minors, and a still larger proportion are not yet self-supporting breadwinners. Hence there are certain rights of parents and guardians which call for a more or less distinct recognition from the college, and which must be reckoned with as we study our problem of reorganiza- tion. But all this merely puts a higher and more per- sonal responsibility upon the institution as to those matters in which it is still regarded as in loco parentis; a threefold responsibility, to the state, the parents and the students themselves. This lingering remnant of the past does not make the similarity of the college to the municipality less striking; for the state and muni- cipal governments have assumed and are carrying out the training of their own youth, and for this purpose, as to more than half our students, the state universities are the direct agents of the commonwealth. Further- more, every college is directly dependent, for students, upon the public schools, and demands that the public- school curriculum shall be articulated with its own, as will be more fully shown. 48 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges At this point I call attention again to the words "college" and "college life" as used herein. They are intended to apply to the students of all institutions- no matter what their position in the higher educational scale whose student lives are wholly or principally spent in college homes or within the influence of a college community which affects them as citizens there- in. Of course I do not imply that the college has not still the power as a sovereign corporation, subject only to a limited control by the legislature and courts, to make written ordinances which shall, necessarily or unnecessarily, wisely or unwisely, attempt to control the relations of student to student, or the internal affairs of the college homes, and which must be obeyed or evaded if the student is to remain within the juris- diction of the college state. Historically the college has always had and exercised this power, and certainly it has never, as a matter of law, lost these rights. But social and educational conditions have so far changed that the ill-advised use of such an obsolete power by the college will be the same as in the ordinary com- munity where an unwise law or ordinance will either be repealed or become a dead letter; and in either event the prestige of the government and of all law suffers. If, following the rule of the times, there has been this complete evolution and revolution in the nature of our colleges, it is manifestly ill advised for them to attempt to govern their student citizens, in the planes of their community life or college home, by college legislation or ordinances, as was done in the seventeenth and The College a Quasi Public Corporation 49 eighteenth centuries. Such laws in regard to these personal matters were frequently evaded then, and must become practically dead letters under modern conditions. Our colleges have largely abandoned all attempts to enforce these obsolete provisions, but have failed to substitute any suitable modern agencies to accomplish the same desirable ends, and hence the con- ditions of the student life have too frequently become chaotic, unless student agencies have provided some- thing to take the place of the ancient ordinances. Furthermore, if our colleges have come to partake of the nature of the ordinary state or community, then (a) the principles of their government and internal rela- tions are to be found, not in ancient boarding-school college methods, but in a new form of civics, political economy and administration, especially applicable to this new form of political entity, (b) If we would study the college community life and the relations therein of the students to each other, let us go directly to the highest forms of the rules and customs which govern the relations of man to man in modern business or pro- fessional life or in society, (c) If we would know more of the college home and its power for good or evil upon the functions of the college, and in the college com- munity life and in the lives of its own inmates, let us study the ordinary homes from which our students come, and be assured that in the best thereof we shall find the pattern for the highest form of the college home. If, then, the American college has in recent years become a quasi state or community, this is another potent reason for an organic and intelligent reorganiza- 50 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges tion of the whole college economy and methods along these new lines; for a revamping of many of our no- tions about the college and its government; and for examining still more closely the true nature of the college community life and of the college home, and their vital bearing upon the college itself and its good name and future, and upon each and all of its other departments, and upon the individual training and work in after life of each and every undergraduate. But, as in the life of the ordinary breadwinner, re- forms must be brought about in a philosophical way in the various planes of that life, so, in the life of the student, constant and intelligent pressure must be brought to bear upon and through the forces dominant in the field where the evils exist, and this has been the course of all true progress so far made in the colleges. Every endeavor to bring about student government has been an unconscious step in the working out of this ideal of the college state and the tendencies in that direction are constantly growing broader and stronger. Every fraternity home built by the alumni at the so- licitation of the undergraduates has been an uncon- scious demonstration that powerful forces were working within the college state and community toward the realization of the college home. The fact that there are now more college students rooming in the homes pro- vided by the fraternities than in the college dormitories shows how powerful has been this force which the stu- dents themselves have brought to bear toward a reor- ganization of the college economy. CHAPTER VI THE RELATION OF THE COLLEGE TO THE COMMON- WEALTH BUT we have yet to consider the new relations which, because of changed powers and conditions, the college and the university bear to the commonwealth itself. When this country was a vast wilderness, and its chief products were those of the forest and the sea, and government was largely by English proconsuls, and the chief use of learning was to attempt to apply Old Testa- ment texts to New England ecclesiastical politics, a college education was a luxury rather than a necessity; a setting of occasional individuals above and apart from their fellows, rather than a preparation for work with and among their fellows who had themselves received a good education in the public high schools. We must keep constantly before us the fact that in the earlier days the college course was designed to train controver- sialists in an age of scriptural controversy. We have absolutely no use for such scholars to-day. They would be laughed to scorn. In fact, a theological library of even forty years ago is now practically valueless except as a curiosity. It is but little more than thirty years since one of the foremost of our New England college presidents annually delivered an hour's lecture to his senior class as to whether or not the Tabernacle built 5' 52 The Reorganization of Our Colleges by Moses had a ridge pole; and I am ashamed to admit that I cannot remember to which side he gaye the de- cision. Moreover, in the earlier days, a college educa- tion had a tendency to build up an aristocracy in colo- nies which still clung to the aristocratic ideas which they brought from their mother countries, and which were being constantly recruited therefrom. * There was noth- ing in the least resembling our modern system of uni- versal and compulsory graded primary, secondary and high-school education. But the present is increasingly an age of scientific accuracy and detail, of specialization and differentia- tion. New and startling questions are arising in the domain of the state itself, as well as in the arts, sciences and professions, and in business and commerce. These questions are political, ethical, sociological, economic, and but rarely religious. They strike at those founda- tions of society which, at least in this country, we had thought were fixed forever. These issues arise in con- nection with the greatest problem of race assimilation which the world has ever seen or is likely to see. While our growth has been phenomenal, it has raised up ex- ternal competitors and engendered internal conflicts which require the nation and each of its component parts to muster all their forces and the greatest and most promising of these is education, universal, com- pulsory, free, and constantly broader and higher. It follows, therefore, that the evolution of our col- leges into corporations exercising some of the functions of the state is no more accidental than the growth of the "Individual Training in Our Colleges," Chap. III. K .X Relation o] College to Commonwealth 53 quasi turnpike railroads into vast corporations to which, through their franchises, the state has now turned over so many of its own functions. These latter corpora- tions have received their present rights and powers not because they were railroads, but rather because modern conditions demanded that in some manner there should be provided the transportation facilities which we now have. It was felt that the state was not fitted to fur- nish these accommodations, and hence by the consent of its citizens it freely conferred upon the railroad corpora- tions the rights which would enable them to do what the state does in other countries. But the conferring of public functions upon a corporation necessarily implies that that corporation may and should, to a correspond- ing extent, be held accountable to the public for the proper use of the powers so conferred. Gradually and almost imperceptibly the railroads have been the re- cipients of valuable franchises and rights from the state, and we are now beginning to appreciate that the state can and should demand adequate and proper re- turns from the corporations which it has so splendidly endowed. In the same manner, and as imperceptibly, the col- leges and universities have become the official or un- official capstones of a vast system of public primary, secondary and high-school instruction, upon which this country is now spending over $300,000,000 annually, with an annual increase of about $30,000,000, and which represents a past investment of billions of dollars. It is a very recent policy that the state itself should provide and enforce a compulsory and universal educa- 54 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges tion in book learning; going, if necessary, so far as to set up truant schools and to punish the parents of truant children. We have reversed the earlier notion that book learning, and especially the higher education, were matters for the home or the church. Hence the col- leges have become an important factor in a new educa- tional system which has its mainspring in the common- wealth rather than in the family or the church. In the older times the individual or his parents or his church determined whether he should have an opportunity for book learning. Now he is born into a state policy of universal education which is as fundamental as the form of government. The main object of this system of universal and compulsory education by the state is to train for an enlightened citizenship under a system of universal and almost compulsory suffrage. Under these conditions, and as in the case of the railroads and other public-service corporations, the public has felt that the colleges were better fitted than the state to exercise many of its educational functions. Hence the policy has been deliberately adopted and generously carried out of endowing these outside agencies often survivors from the time when there was no compulsory education to exercise what are now in a strict sense public functions. Especially at the East we are apt to think of our great system of higher learning as a mat- ter of private corporations and rights, without stop- ping to consider how the private colleges have become, every one of them, quasi public corporations and in a sense public-service corporations directly owing im- portant duties to the state which has conferred such Relation of College to Commonwealth 55 immense powers and benefits upon them, with the understanding, express or implied, that they shall recognize and freely perform their reciprocal obliga- tions to the state. State aid implies the right of the state to call for an adequate return at the proper time and in the proper way; and every college has had state aid, if only in the way of relief from taxation. Furthermore, the whole public-school system supported by the state is modeled so as to connect with and feed the colleges, private as well as public. For this aid the colleges owe a cor- responding obligation to the commonwealth which they must freely recognize and conscientiously perform. At least ninety per cent of the students of the Eastern colleges and probably ninety-five per cent of those of the Western colleges have received the whole or the major part of their preliminary education in the public schools. Prior to the nineteenth century these pro- portions were about reversed. The student body of even the privately endowed Eastern colleges would be practically wiped out and not ten per cent would re- main if the undergraduates educated at the expense of the state were withdrawn. The colleges demand, and the state docilely agrees, that the $300,000,000 of an- nual outlay upon the public schools shall be so ex- pended as to deliver at the doors of the colleges the pick of the state's yearly crop of future citizens. But the duty of the college to the state in regard to this wealth of future citizen material thus delivered, without expense, is not even confined to the state which has conferred the college charter. For example, Amherst 56 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges and Williams each have more students from New York State and hence who were fitted mostly in New York schools than from Massachusetts; and a very large majority of their students come from other states than Massachusetts. Hence these colleges are, to this ex- tent, the capstones of the systems of the public education of states other than Massachusetts which incorporated them and to whose laws they are directly amenable. In 1908-9 only 147 out of 523, or twenty-eight per cent, of the students of Amherst came from Massachusetts homes, while 168, or thirty-two per cent, came from New York homes. Therefore, in a limited sense, Amherst College is not so much a private and privately endowed college under the laws of Massachusetts as she is a public servant and a link in the public-school system of New York and other states, each of which by law recognizes an Amherst College diploma as on a par with the diplomas of their own colleges. Yet New York does not recognize a license to practice medicine or law in Massachusetts as entitling its holder to practice in New York, although she fully recognizes the degrees of the colleges of Massachusetts as on a par with those of New York colleges. Hence we see that a college degree has a general recognition, while a professional license has not, unless with a further and local examination and qualification. Except as to direct gfants of public funds the denominational colleges are under as great obligations to the state as any other institutions of higher learning. Imagine the plight of any college which could not draw a single pupil who had been at any time taught in the public schools. Hence even the Relation oj College to Commonwealth 57 private colleges rest directly upon the public-school system and are thus public servants. The wonderful liberality of our nation to our schools, colleges and universities is a matter of amazement to the peoples of Europe. About a year ago a native born Hungarian wrote to some home newspapers stating that the total expenditures in the United States for educational purposes for the year 1903-4 had been $344,216,227. The story was received with utter in- credulity, and the suggestion was made, editorially, that the decimal mark had been inadvertently moved one point to the right; that the true figures should have been $34,421,622; and that even this was a case of Yankee bragging and exaggeration. The correspond- ent's father, who was himself a minister of the govern- ment, wrote a warning against making such ridic- ulous mistakes. For vindication it became necessary to send over the official reports of the United States De- partment of Education to show that not only were the figures correctly given for 1903-4, but that in 1904-5 the outlay was $376,996,472, and in 1905-6, $399,688,910. These enormous expenditures, chiefly from the public moneys, are cheerfully made because the nation and all its parts realize that there must be provided the widest and best training and education for citizenship a train- ing and education that shall be practically universal, and which assuredly ought to be applicable and effect- ive in all of the planes of the personal life of every future citizen of the state. Hence we find that the public- school training and education aim not only to teach the 58 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges three R's and other book learning, but also to give manual and domestic science and physiological training which shall enable the pupils to become better bread- winners, husbands, wives and parents. We are apt to think that we do not draw the line of state control closely enough upon our railroads, and sufficiently force them to realize and perform their duties as public servants. At the same time we quite overlook how much the colleges owe to the state, and how, more than ever before, they fall short when they fail to do everything in their power to fulfill the pre- eminent duties which they owe to the state and which they alone can perform for it; since to them alone have been granted the exclusive rights and enormous sub- sidies which have been conferred upon our institutions of higher learning. This change in the duties and functions of the colleges and universities must be taken into full account in our reorganization, for we must recognize more fully than ever before the duties which the colleges, private and public, now owe to the public and to the state, entirely apart from and almost above the duties which they owe to their own undergraduates, alumni, faculty or denominations. As we proceed we shall see how the colleges would fare if they were under the same governmental rule as their fellow public ser- vants, the railroads, and what kind of showing they would make under rules similar to those of the Inter- state Commerce Commission. The college is, in its relation to the commonwealth, a quasi city, but it is "a city set on a hill that cannot be hid." It should be a pattern to its sister municipalities Relation of College to Commonwealth 59 in the fairness and administration of its laws, in the cleanness of its public sentiment, and in the uplifting qualities of its home life. It must not be pointing out to its students the motes in the eye of the ordinary municipality when there are beams in its own eye. It is not merely a pedagogical matter if the college authorities, through their blindness and lack of admin- istration, have often allowed the college atmosphere to become debased and the college home life to be brought to a low level. This is a question of the highest moment to the commonwealth and its homes, its parents and its citizens. As a business proposition and as a matter of justice and right, there must be a complete change, quite regardless, if need be, of the personal feelings of the men who are responsible for such a reprehensible state of affairs whether their sins be those of omission or commission, whether their fault arises from not doing themselves or from failing to call upon those, outside their own ranks, who could at least have kept college affairs at their former high level. Possibly, in a sense, the decadence in college con- ditions has not been due altogether to the pedagogues, but in large part to the commonwealth, and to its homes, its parents and its citizens. For college teachers and students are, and must to a great degree continue to be, the products of the commonwealth and its homes, its parents and its citizens. We shall be constantly and increasingly impressed, as we proceed, with the feel- ing that the great reform in the colleges must indeed come from the outside and not by mere reliance upon the college instructors; yet that the leadership 60 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges in that great reform must come from the colleges them- selves. Hence as we analyze the colleges and their short- comings, and plead for a reorganization along business lines and upon business principles, and for a college education and training for citizenship, let us not think that we are dealing solely with private vested rights which must be considered sacred; but rather that we are demanding that our most important public ser- vants which have been endowed with great privileges, and which have received immense sums from the public funds, and in partial aid of which the country annually spends $300,000,000 shall be held to the strictest ac- countability to the state, and to the humblest home, parent and citizen therein that may be adversely affected by any unnecessary evils in such high places. The best possible reorganization, upon the best possible business basis, and if necessary with extensive state aid, is not a whit too much to ask of our colleges, especially as that is what they themselves should be clamoring for. The true and close relations of the colleges to the state and the public will constantly recur as we proceed in our discussion. CHAPTER VII THE STUDENT LIFE DEPARTMENT AND THE COLLEGE COMMUNITY LIFE WE have seen that there are three planes in the life of the ordinary citizen and breadwinner, viz.: his duties to the state, to his community, business or pro- fessional circle, and to his home and personal friends; and that, in a similar manner, the undergraduate sus- tains a threefold relation to his college state, community and home; and that the two last-named relations are comprehended in the student life department which comprises at least ninety per cent of the student's time. We must consider now the student life department as a whole and the college community life in particular, and what should be their position and treatment in the reorganized college. The college home life will be dis- cussed in later chapters. This great department of the college, the student life, was not well differentiated in the early days, but has now become almost, if not quite, the controlling part of college life. At first the young boys, who usually graduated from college at seventeen or eighteen, were constantly under the watchful guard of president, professors and tutors. They were subject to flogging, and in the freshman year to fagging by all the upper classmen, bachelors, masters, tutors, professors and 61 62 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges president, under elaborate Freshman Servitude rules. The pupils studied, recited, ate and slept in the same building, under the closest guard of their tutors, who were hard-headed and hard-handed Puritans, who be- lieved in original sin, and who lived in an age in which the statute law provided that a child that smote or cursed its parents might be put to death. This watch and guard continued from 5.15 A.M. in summer and from 6.30 A.M. in winter, through to a compulsory and early bedtime, with four short "playtimes," aggre- gating four and one-half hours in length, during which "the schollar" might "be absent from his studies or appointed exercises." Out of these playtimes must come some of the meals and, for the freshmen, fagging. During all the rest of the day, and after sundown on Saturday and on all of the Sabbath, the boys must be in their rooms or at college exercises. With no money, time or facilities for getting away from the college town, it is not wonderful that everyone came to consider the college course as a homogeneous thing, directly under the eye of a superior, intended to teach good manners and personal habits quite as much as the few easy lessons, for which often there were no text-books. The college life was lived in constant and close touch with the teacher, who knew every move of the pupil, unless the latter outwitted him. Under such circumstances there could be but little difference between the college community life and that of the college home. It was all a part of "college," which was considered as a tem- porary substitute for the parents' home, with all the re- strictions that there prevailed, but with some special The Student Lije Department 63 advantages in the way of education. It was this con- ception of the college which prompted the Massachu- setts legislature to confer upon the Harvard faculty the express authority to inflict corporal punishment upon their students. 1 Thus the faculty, under the direct provision of the statute law, was put in the place of the parent in one of the most characteristic functions of the home, that of the personal chastisement of the young. As the college was avowedly based upon the home, there could be no such differentiation of the different phases of under- graduate life as exists in the quasi college state of to-day. But we have never quite outlived this early notion of the American college. We sorrow for the old restraints upon the personal conduct of the students, but fail to study modern social and business conditions and evolve a modern method for accomplishing the same result. This failure has been one result of the utter omission of our colleges to organize a separate administrative department. Unfortunately, we still think of "college life" as a comparatively simple and homogeneous affair like that of the small boarding-school colleges of the ecclesias- tical period, where every effort was used to make the boys professing Christians, and, if possible, ministers of the gospel. Often nothing could now be further from the truth. The life of the average well-to-do or wealthy student is not one of laziness or idleness, any more than in the older days, but rather a round of un- controlled outside activities and temptations, of dis- 1 " Individual Training in Our Colleges," p. 8. 64 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges tractions away from higher intellectual, moral or re- ligious things and often of lapses into evil ways. The college problem is still and must continue to be the problem of adolescents. So far as this comprehends the problems, mental, moral and physical, of a recog- nized life period it is true that the problem does not change. But so far as it deals with constantly shifting social, educational and other elements, the problem presents as constantly shifting phases, which must be as constantly anticipated and met with consummate wisdom. In one small college, the president recently estimated that the recognized student activities outside of the regular curriculum, and including sports, music, dramatics, etc., were at least twenty-seven in number. It is not surprising that the dean of another college has recommended "a lightening of nonacademic demands upon the students." There is a place for these outside activities which legitimately go far toward making a college education a training for efficient citizenship. Some of these outside activities belong, in the main, to the college community life, like the teams, crews, glee clubs, and other bodies which are presumed to represent the best that there is in the college in those lines; and some are social and properly confined to small groups of congenial spirits. In some lines of out- side activities the distinction between the college com- munity and the home is easily seen, and in others it is not. The chief point to be remembered here is that the college community and home lives play as important a part as ever in molding the character of the future The Student Life Department 65 problem solver and citizen, but must be approached from a different angle and in a different spirit than in the earlier days. Now, as ever, the growth of tHe citizen is from his childhood in the home to his introduction into the business or community life, and thereafter into his political or civic life. He goes into business when he is from sixteen to twenty-five, but he does not often hold political office before he is thirty. These transitions are usually gradual and halting. The college age is likewise the age recognized as that in which a non- collegian is to take his first lessons in his trade or business, and form the habits which must govern his community or business life. We should recognize, there- fore, that these college years constitute a life period, a character-forming time, in which especially the com- munity life elements of the character of the future breadwinner are molded and largely set. This has always been so and must always be so, unless the race changes. Herein lies the great importance of the student life as distinguished from the pedagogical part of the college; for the embryo citizen and breadwinner may be more in need of training and growth in his com- munity or social or home life than upon his strictly intellectual side. The college community interests are those which are recognized as affecting the institution or the student body as a whole; while the college home interests are social in their nature and affect only individuals or small groups of students. We find that the student life, or the ninety per cent 66 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges of his time outside of recitations, comprises that por- tion of the undergraduate's life in which he must do his studying, and get his food, rest, recreation and exer- cise, and is spent partly in the larger college atmosphere and activities which environ all within the institution, and partly in his closer association with his chosen comrades in his college home. Many feel that this ninety per cent is the really important part of a college education; that it is not his scholastic attainments, but his contact with his fellow-students in college and so- cial activities, which will make him a power in future years. No doubt this ninety per cent contributes much of that indefinite something which makes an all-around man of the college graduate, and surely we should make every effort to lift it to the highest possible plane. This is because some men need the broadening of the college community or the polishing of the college home. But as reorganizes we must constantly hold in mind that most of the impurities and vices of college come from the student life rather than from personal contact with the instructors; and, therefore, that if we would put down these evils and improve physical, mental, moral and religious conditions we must do so chiefly in the great department of the student life, where these evils have their source and strength, and where, if anywhere, they must be overcome. Christ devotes over ninety per cent of His parable of the Sower and the Seed not to either the sower or the seed but to the soil into which the seed fell and to the relative failure of the harvest. He took for granted the goodness of the seed and the human frailty of the The Student Lije Department 67 sower, but treated the ground as the variable yet reme- diable factor in the parable problem. In our colleges the seed typifies the slight contact of the student with his instructors little else nowadays; the sower typi- fies the administration what little there is of it the agency which brings together the seed and the soil, the instructor and the pupil; while the student life largely determines whether the soil into which the seed falls shall be that by the wayside, or stony, or thorny, or be good ground. We, too, may safely assume the goodness of the seed, and the earnestness and devotion but not the infallibility of the sowers; and also that the average results of the harvest are relatively very poor; chiefly because we have forgotten the lesson of the parable, and have given most of our time and thought to the seed, and but little to the sowers ; while we have neglected to properly prepare the hearts and minds of our students by influences which act upon them after the seed is sown, or, in other words, when they are not in the presence of their instructors. It is with the mental, moral and re- ligious preparation of the ground that we are concerned when we study the student life department. The interest of the reorganized college in the college community life and in the home life of its pupils will be both direct and indirect. Direct as to that part of their time in which they must study and prepare for their recitations and other work with their professors; and indirect, that no part of their time shall be so spent as to unfit them to get the most, present and future, out of the opportunities which the college offers, or so as to affect her good name and fame in the present or future, 68 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges or so that either college or pupil shall be derelict in their duties to the state. The vital importance of the student life department is seen in the following extract from a letter of the dean of one of the larger Western universities, a graduate of an important Eastern college: " I have also noted with great sorrow that in our Western institutions the evils of modern student life are even more sharply marked than they are in the East. The lack of the conservative element, the presence of a less highly organized society, the want of family prejudices to maintain old con- ditions, have all led to more extreme participation in mod- ern changes than the Eastern colleges have experienced. I know of no place where so much fine material coming from the country and small towns has been ruined by a single half year of idleness and extravagance. The worst elements of city, social and fraternity life seem to be those most eagerly grasped after and most incessantly followed." But surely, you say, the faculty knows all about this student life department in its dual relation to the undergraduate, and it has been the subject of their careful study for years. Strange to say quite the op- posite of this is true. Not only have the faculty not studied intelligently this plane of the college, but ap- parently they have not even fully recognized its existence or realized its tremendous bearing upon the results of their own work. They have been too content to study and to dis- course and write upon constitutional history and the political economy and affairs of the state and the city, but they have not analyzed the like conditions prevail- ing within their own walls, which palsied their own best efforts and too often proved a curse to some of The Student Llje Department 69 their brightest and most prominent students. Often- times they have not relaxed their efforts to work re- forms in what they were pleased to call the college, when they should have known that they were trying to deal with the evils of a single department of the college. The pedagogical department would not have exhibited this fatal blindness if a proper and separate administra- tive department had been at work on the problems which belonged to it rather than to any other depart- ment of the college. Now that nearly forty per cent of our entire popula- tion is in our cities, and an even greater proportion of our college students come from our urban population, we must expect an increasing predominance of city habits and manners, even in country colleges. This dwelling in cities means, among other things, that one's community or business life is touched by a large num- ber, but that it is neither usual nor polite to meddle in a fellow-citizen's home. This distinction is well marked in our colleges, especially in the larger urban institu- tions, and those without dormitories, and has been increasingly emphasized by the growth of clubs and fraternity houses. Nearness no longer implies neigh- borliness, even in college. Often students do not know the names or faces of many of their own classmates, for they do not meet them in class room or chapel, and merely pass them in the street or on the campus, or sit with them on the cheering benches. They ask that the privacy of their own college home life shall be respected, and they reciprocate by caring to know nothing of their fellows' home life. 70 The Reorganization of Our Colleges In this, also, there is a complete change from the earlier times. If there was then anything that his classmates did not know of a fellow-student's private affairs, it was because of his secretiveness ; but now it is because it is recognized that, under college good man- ners, it is none of the other fellow's business. Every year this view of the privacy of the college home be- comes better established in student circles, especially where the fraternities are strongest. The distinction between a man's college community life and his college home life is more and more marked each year, and this must come to be fully recognized by the college itself, which must appreciate that undergraduates are no longer schoolboys, to be governed accordingly, but are adult citizens of the college community, and are to be treated accordingly. There is now often a tacit tolera- tion of many things in college which would have been impossible in earlier days. This is because there is no recognized and modern way of meeting the evils of this plane of the student's life. If this citizenship, with its different aspects and rights, had heretofore been properly recognized and studied by the colleges, they would long ago have seen that it was necessary to preserve a clean and sane college public sentiment if they would have clean and sane student lives or homes, and that when they lowered the general college sentiment they were guilty of a crime of the same nature as those who make grafting, or other civic wrongdoing, common, profitable and in a sense respectable. Yet that is just what the colleges themselves, in their haste for advertising and growth in The Student Life Department 71 numbers and wealth, have done too often in their inter- collegiate athletics and in some other departments. 1 Yet this is no more surprising than the contem- poraneous lowering of scholarship standards in our colleges, so that they have actually put a premium on poor work. 2 Furthermore, we can see what have been the lower- ing but to-be-expected influences of this greedy and vicious policy upon the college home life. We rec- ognize the powerful and direct influence of the state and community, and of public sentiment and custom upon the home, and especially upon the youth therein. We also appreciate that men usually go wrong either in their community or home lives and not often in their direct relations to the state itself. Some men who are exemplary in their homes go wrong in their business lives, while others who are upright in business do grievous wrong in their home lives. It is from this point of view that we can best under- stand how, in the broad sense of the words, a man may be an " undesirable citizen." He may be undesirable because he breaks (a) the written law of the state and becomes amenable to its penalties; or (6) the unwritten law, or the contractual regulations, or the spirit of good faith and comity of his business or profession or com- munity; or (c) the moral or social law, in any of their phases, of his home or circle; or because he breaks the law in any two or more of these planes of his life. He > " Individual Training in Our Colleges," Chap. XXIII. 2 Ibid., Chap. XXV. 72 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges may be undesirable and extremely so because, while he himself strictly observes the letter of the law, he con- stantly and designedly breaks its intent; or because he teaches or induces others to break the law, or shows them how they may do so, or so conducts himself as to bring the law into disrepute. He may hold high political office in the commonwealth, yet so use or mis- use that office, or neglect his opportunities therein, as to bring the law itself into disrepute and degrade the office, and hence be an undesirable citizen in his civic or political life. He may hold high office in a great and influential monied institution which guards and con- trols the fortunes and savings of thousands, and yet be essentially dishonest, dishonorable and overreaching, and hence an undesirable citizen in his community, business or professional life. He may hold high office in the church and exercise its chief functions, and lead an exemplary life, so far as outward appearances and the observances of the church are concerned, and yet be bigoted, uncharitable, cruel and hypocritical in his personal life; or he may break the spirit of the laws of the state or community or church while he observes the letter, and hence be an undesirable citizen. Judged by this standard, there are but few men who are not un- desirable or imperfect citizens in some manner and to some degree, either in their acts of omission or com- mission and in some one or more planes of their lives. At this point we can understand the full meaning of the injunction, "Judge not [any man in any particular plane of his life] that ye be not judged [in that or some other plane of your own life]. For with what judg- The Student Lije Department 73 ment ye judge [another, in any plane of his life, with that judgment] ye shall be judged [in the plane of your life wherein ye are weak and errant]." Here also we see the full scope of the duty of the college in training for citizenship each embryo citizen who has been intrusted to its care. That duty in its highest sense is to train, develop and make strong every element of desirable citizenship of which each under- graduate, as an individual, is capable, and to minimize or prevent the growth of every feature of his life which is likely to make him an undesirable citizen in any plane of his life in his future years. Anything short of this is pro tanto a failure, alike in ideals and results, upon the part of the institution itself and of its course. It is in this large sense that the term " training for citi- zenship" is used in this book. The reorganized college will clearly recognize the direct and all-powerful influence of the college state and of the college sentiment and atmosphere upon the college homes and their inmates, and thus upon the pedagogical results; and it will do all in its power to foster those influences which will improve that atmos- phere, and to counteract those which will vitiate it. In- deed it has been well said that a university is not a school but an atmosphere. Hence the reorganized college will perceive that its college community atmosphere has a great and domi- nating place in its economy ; that it must be reckoned with if a perfect college reorganization is to be brought about; and that it must never be left out of future calculations; but that the college must attempt to regain at once, but 74 The Reorganization of Our Colleges wisely, the ground which it has lost in this regard during the last forty years. This college atmosphere is a delicate yet complex thing, and not exactly alike in any two institutions. It affects and is affected by the most diverse interests by those of the locality in which it is situated, and of the state which supplies its funds in whole or in part, and of whose public-school system it may be the capstone; by the influences which its students bring from pre- paratory or other fitting schools or from their parents' homes; by the customs and ideals of rival institutions, as well as by those which have crystallized out of the college lives of generations of its own students; by the standards of its own faculty and of its own constituent college homes. At the same time it has its reflex action upon each of the elements which so strongly affect it. Is it too much to say that in our recent history the student life department and its relation to the whole subject of college education have not been intelligently examined and studied, and that this is another great reason why we must now have a radical reorganization, which shall recognize, coordinate and correlate this fundamental department? CHAPTER VIII THE COLLEGE COMMUNITY LIFE -Continued THE college community life forces itself upon our attention largely in connection with student govern- ment, and in intercollegiate contests which are usually in athletics; and these two phases of this subject de- mand careful thought. As a matter of fact, the real government of college affairs in most of our large institutions is by the stu- dents themselves, no matter how the faculty imagine that they still wield the power. The college owes it to the commonwealth, to itself and to its undergraduates that, so far as possible, the students shall be trained for future citizenship through participation in the government of the college state. Yet one college dean writes: " Student government implies the possession of mature judgment or control of reason more than most persons of college age possess. At that time of life all are more easily moved by impulse and immediate advantage. Experience alone teaches men to seek an ultimate effect in preference to a near-by vantage. The college life is in this respect a time of transition, often of revolution in attitude and action." It seems to me that this is the wrong point from which to view this subject. The college should be seeking ways in which to perform to the utmost its funda- 75 76 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges mental duty to train its citizens to perform fully and wisely their future duties as citizens of the greater state. Far better an honest and intelligent endeavor to train wisely its student citizens for future citizenship than the plea that they are still schoolboys incapable of self-government and to be governed by ancient college methods. But as a matter of fact real student govern- ment has usually been successful and is bound to be in most cases where it has a fair trial. It will be suc- cessful because it is the philosophically correct way of governing a modern college state. Apparently student government has not been tried with the distinct and avowed purpose of fulfilling the institution's own duty of training its students for citi- zenship and of giving them some idea of their future civic and political duties. Instead of treating student government as something to be encouraged and en- larged, it has been regarded as a doubtful and danger- ous substitute for the earlier faculty control of disci- pline, to be handled gingerly and grudgingly. Instead of making it an affirmative education, it has been treated as a negative concession wrung from a half- hearted faculty, who still cling to the idea that they are schoolmasters not mentors, and that discipline cannot be maintained except by some survival of the Puritanic college methods. Thus do the faculty detract from the dignity of their own standing, and prefer to remain proctors rather than be, in the highest and best sense, instructors; and thus does pedagogic control prevent the college from fully performing one great duty which it owes to the commonwealth. The College Community Life 77 There are many representative men in every college class who are fully qualified to bear the responsibility of a proper system of student government, and to be the better citizens in the future because of the load which they carried as students. Indeed, one of the striking things about modern college life is the amount of busi- ness, civic and financial responsibility, of one kind and another, which rests upon various students as managers, captains or otherwise, in connection with student activities. As a rule, these men, who are held directly accountable to their fellows and peers, do remarkably well and get much experience and knowledge which is valuable in their future touch with larger affairs. It also strikes a candid observer from the student stand- point that student government could not have much worse results than those which are laid herein, and in many other books upon the college, at the door of faculty government. In fact, faculty not administrative or executive- management of the student life is almost as unphilo- sophical, and as detrimental to training for citizenship, as is student management of the instruction, an ex- ample of which can be found in unrestrained electives, against which an increasing cry is going up. This was to be expected, because a system of unregulated elec- tives is merely a means of turning over the pedagogical branch to the control of the individual student. At the beginning of the academic year of 1908-9, Columbia put into effect a Constitution of the Board of Student Representatives, approved by the University Council, April 21, 1908, a copy of which is given in 78 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Appendix No. III. It is negative rather than affirma- tive, preventive rather than formative, but it is a step in the right direction. Likewise student honor ought to be a subject of student rather than of faculty regulation. The rules given below have been in force in Amherst College for several years, and have been successful because they have been backed by student sentiment, and they have reacted upon and improved every part of the college life. In all the cases where sentence under the honor system has been passed against fraternity members at Amherst, it has been anticipated or followed by sus- pension or expulsion by the student's own fraternity. But it is interesting to note that in one instance where such a member had been suspended by the local chapter he was, against the protest of the chapter, re- stored to membership by the general convention of the fraternity, which could not appreciate how cheating had come to be regarded at Amherst after it had been put under student control. ARTICLE I SECTION i. The honor system in examinations is defined as that system under which, after the examination is set by the faculty, no faculty surveillance is exercised, and under which the student body, through a committee, control in- vestigations concerning dishonesty in examinations. SEC. 2. The instructor may be present for a few mo- ments at the opening of the examination to answer any question that may arise. SEC. 3. During examinations each student shall have perfect freedom of action and conversation, provided he does not interfere with the work of others. The College Community Lije 79 ARTICLE II SEC. i. Each student must, in order to make his exam- ination valid, sign the following declaration: "I pledge my honor that I have neither given nor received aid in this ex- amination." A similar statement may be required in case of a written examination, essay or oration, but in case of no other work. SEC. 2. Violations of the honor system shall consist in any attempt to receive assistance from written or printed aids, or from any person or his paper; or any attempt to give as- sistance, whether the one so doing has completed his paper or not. This rule shall hold within and without the exam- ination room during the entire time in which the examination is in progress, that is, until the time specified has expired. ARTICLE III SEC. i. There shall be a committee consisting of six mem- bers who shall represent the student body and deal with all cases involving violations of the honor system. SEC. 2. The members of this committee shall be the pres- idents of the four classes and two others, one a member of the senior class and one a member of the junior class. SEC. 3. The president of the senior class shall be chairman of the committee, and the president of the junior class shall be clerk. ARTICLE IV SEC. i . In case of apparent fraud in examination, the de- tector shall first speak to the offending party. Should the offender show there is a mistake, the matter drops at once. Otherwise it is carried to the committee, who shall conduct a formal investigation and should the offender be found guilty he has the privilege of appeal to the faculty. In case of conviction the committee shall determine the punishment under the following regulations: i . In case of violation of the honor system by a member of the senior, junior or sophomore class, the penalty shall be a recommendation to the faculty of his separation from college. &o The Reorganization oj Our Colleges 2. In case of the violation of the said system by a member of the freshman class, the penalty shall be recommendation of suspension for a term determined by the committee. 3. Five out of six votes shall in all cases be necessary for conviction. 4. All men who have been in the college one (i) year or more shall be judged by the same rule as seniors, juniors and sophomores. Those who have been in the college for less than one (i) year shall be judged by the rule which applies to freshmen. ARTICLE V SEC. i. Every student in the college shall be expected to lend his aid in maintaining this constitution. ARTICLE VI SEC. i. This constitution may be amended by a three- fourths vote of those present at a mass meeting, notice hav- ing been given at least one week previous. ARTICLE VII SEC., i. The committee shall make provision for interpret- ing the honor system to the members of the freshman class within three weeks after the opening of the first term of each year. SEC. 2. This constitution shall be posted in lecture rooms, on college bulletin boards, and in the library. SEC. 3. This constitution shall be published in the Student three times each year, the first number of the first semester, the last number before the final examinations of the first semester, and the last number before the final examinations of the second semester. Evidently little progress has been made in student government. From articles in Religious Education for February, 1907, and February, 1908, it appears that this important agency of the college is practically unde- veloped. In a few cases student government has been The College Community Life 81 pretty fairly and successfully tried. In far more in- stances a modified form of cooperation between stu- dents and faculty has been adopted. The experiment is usually viewed from the wrong point of view. There is a disinclination to swing from the parental form of government to the ideal of a self-governing community. It is far better to let the students be responsible for the regulation of their community affairs, even if they make many errors and failures, than to keep them in leading strings. The college claims to be training future citi- zens, but she treats them as boys. She can never do her whole duty to the state until she has worked out and applied a form of college polity which puts some civic duty for the college upon every student and makes him bear some of the burdens of college citizenship. The college should be in the highest sense an experiment station in citizenship. If the George Jr. Republic can be successful with wild boys under eighteen, surely the college community affairs ought to be safe in the hands of the students, for they will be largely under the con- trol of the most mature and sagacious seniors and juniors. Certainly the institution can never fulfill its duty to the commonwealth until it does its utmost to train citizens who shall be able and willing to exercise leadership in civic affairs in after years. But right here many colleges are evidently misap- prehending the distinction between the community and home lives of their citizens, and are apt to think that college government should extend to the students' per- sonal habits. These must be reached through the college homes. Even in the commonwealth prohibition 82 The Reorganization of Our Colleges and excise laws relate to the public trafficking in liquors and not to the private use of them in the home. The state does not make laws saying that the citizen shall not drink intoxicating liquors in his home, but merely regulates the manufacturing and public sale of those liquors. In all such matters the law only goes to the length of regulating trade, which is a function of the community life, and does not dictate what shall be the private habits of the individual, for that comes within the sanctity of his home life. It is not wise to regulate the use of tobacco and other personal habits by college law and ordinance. This weakens all government, be- cause it is an improper and unphilosophical assump- tion of authority by the central power. These things should be reached through the homes which, more than anything else, affect the personal habits of the individual. Let us, therefore, reorganize our colleges upon the theory that, so far as is possible, our embryo citizens are to be trained, during their course, in all that is high- est and best in citizenship, instead of being held in leading strings. If we are to make mistakes and we have made and shall make many let them be in the line of progress, rather than in that of ignorance and blindness; for an enlightened student government will solve many of the problems which now seem almost insurmountable. Intimately connected with student government in the college community life is the question of athletics and recreation; and in considering athletics we must not overlook the fact that college athletics are primarily for The College Community Life 83 relaxation, recreation and health, and hence, indirectly, for better intellectual work in college and for greater efficiency in after life. We are too apt to think that they are for the honor and advertising of Alma Mater. We must also recognize that the physical education of the undergraduate, like the other branches of his college education, must regard his past, present and future, and must be founded upon a scientific knowledge of the actual and probable needs of the individual. Hence we should strive for at least the four following results in our system of physical education, and also we should at- tempt to make these clear to the undergraduate body so that college sentiment will aid ii>: (a) The ascertainment of the physical defects and shortcomings of each individual, and his development, so far as possible, into a well-rounded man physically. (b) The maintenance of a perfect physical condition for each student during these four years. (c) Since most of the students will, after college, live a sedentary life, a preparation for preserving perfect health under such untoward conditions. (rf) The recreation which is a legitimate and even necessary end in any system of college or intercollegiate athletics, and in many instances the most important factor therein. If we can keep all of these desiderata before our minds, many things will appear simpler to us. Let us consider these objects more in detail. (a) The first thing essential is to know the true physical condition of each student, and this is much more important than we are apt to think. Many a boy athlete coming to college has, by overstraining, already 84 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges sown the seeds of permanent ill health or of an early death, and special care must be exercised that these unfortunate results do not follow. There are dangers of the age of puberty in boys just as in girls. At this period of life the chief strength of the boy should be given to the readjustment of his physical nature, which may take two or three years. It is most dangerous at this time to attempt to put his heart to the strain of track races and other athletics which try the hearts even of well-developed adults. Many schoolboys, who have made wonderful athletic records at fourteen or sixteen years, have been laid on the shelf at nineteen or twenty; while, on the other hand, the best college athletes are often those who have had a normal growth during boyhood, and who have systematically taken up athletics only after they have finished school. The entering freshmen show the same difference in physical as in intellectual conditions. Hence we must first see to it that each man has the physical exercises that will develop in him, in a sane way, the best physique that is in him, to the end that he may be able to do his best for the state, himself and those dependent upon him in the future; that is, not to develop him into a prize winner, but into perfect manhood so far as may be. A compulsory course in boxing, fencing or dancing would have saved many a good student from becoming a pedant, or from being awkward and ungainly or pusil- lanimous, by developing in him the physical and social traits which he lacked and which he must get in college if ever; and thus would have made him a more efficient citizen in after years, The College Community Life 85 (b) In some ways the life of a college student is not conducive to a perfect physical condition. Overstudy as well as overindulgence in social or other distractions may impair his health. Hence it must be an admitted aim of physical training in college to maintain all the students in the best of health, to the end that they may do the best possible work in their course and be started in their life work without physical handicap. (c) President Eliot was right when he recently said that football was a game that would not be used by the ordinary college graduate in after life. Unfortunately, the same is true of most other sports. Most graduates of college follow a sedentary life in after years. Physi- cal education in the colleges must be varied so as to teach some courses of resistance movements and other forms of home gymnastics which shall, later in life, be available for the busy lawyer, or clergyman or mer- chant, and through which he can preserve his health. Even as it is, our undergraduates learn from the pro- fessional coach or trainer many points as to hygiene and health which were utterly unknown a few years ago, and which are not a part of the curriculum of the college itself. But there should be a distinct recognition by the institution of the value of setting up exercises and of forms of gymnastics which can be used without ap- paratus in a graduate's room or office, and which thus shall serve as a preparation for the preservation of health after college. (d) Older men are apt to overlook the element of recreation which is and should be an important factor in the physical exercises of youth. There can and should 86 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges be plenty of interest, fun, frolic and competition in college sports and games. So far as possible these exercises should be spontaneous and entertaining and not merely perfunctory. If a student works hard, he should play as well and in many cases play hard. In one sense the pendulum has, in modern times, swung clear away from the old-fashioned student who had all work and no play, to the point where the recreative side of college has been much overstimulated. We can have more intramural and a little less of intercollegiate con- tests; but, as reorganizers, let us not forget the value and necessity of true recreation in the life of a young man of from eighteen to twenty-two years of age. Thus our course of physical training will take account of the past, present and future of each student, and put into the life of each as much recreation as the other demands of the college will allow. But athletics and recreation belong largely to the college community life and must be treated therein by the agencies which are effective therein, and that is chiefly by an enlightened college sentiment. This im- plies a proper attempt to make the student body under- stand what the college is striving to accomplish, and to educate college sentiment accordingly. The best course is likely to be a middle one between that pro- posed by the faculty and that demanded by the stu- dents; but the latter are entitled to be heard, since the controversy arises within the realm of the student life department. Ordinary expediency would suggest con- ciliation and agreement rather than force. This course will tend to improve conditions in the college state and The College Community Life 87 make other reforms possible. Star chamber reforms in athletics, or in anything else within the realm of the student life, are unwise and unfair, and, therefore, likely to be ineffectual. The last thing that the faculty ought or needs to do in a well-organized institution is to outrage college sentiment, and show its power to en- force its rulings. Wherever a fair course with the undergraduate body has been honestly and impartially tried, it has been successful in direct ratio to the honesty and intelligence shown in its application. But it is quite within the province of the college to limit, if necessary, the undue interference of student activities with other college duties; as by limiting the number of intercollegiate contests, or of concerts, or trips for outside purposes which shall receive the col- lege approval. The college must also insist upon some oversight of the college home and some assurance that its atmosphere and influence shall be uplifting; but, as will be shown later, the real uplift in this respect must come from within the home and not through college regulations. When the college homes have been properly cleaned up, an enlightened public sentiment will follow as a matter of course. All this must be done in entire accord with the public sentiment of the college, rather than by arbitrary laws which have no college sentiment behind them. There should be connected with the administrative department of every college one or more men, of the very highest type, equipped along the lines suggested in a recent address by President Jesse of the University of Missouri: 88 The Reorganization of Our Colleges "It is a shame that every university possibly some of them already do it does not have on good salary one layman at least, with a head full of common sense, a heart full of righteousness, slightly connected with teaching, but really free for efforts to raise to the highest the life of the students. He ought to be capable of moving, like pawns on a chessboard, the Y. M. C. A., every local church, the fra- ternities, the University Club, the president, the deans, the teachers, the Athletic Association, and every power in the community. Such a man, giving a course of say three hours a week in ethics and the rest of his time to this work, could accomplish much. As his work grows, he ought to have assistants. " This suggestion is in the right line, but it does not go far enough. It shows, however, that the proper way for the college government to reach the student life, either in the college community life or in the college home, is through "the power of a man" and not through the command of an ordinance. In the per- sonal and moral relations of the student citizens to each other and to their own homes, the college must keep close touch through the human agent rather than through the printed law. The college administration will provide and pay this human agent, but there must pervade the student body the feeling that this man is their friend, adviser, advocate and sympathizer, and the whole college government must respect and foster this confidential relation of their own representative to the students singly and collectively. But this man and many others of the same caliber and qualifications will be distinctively in the adminis- trative and not in the instructional department, and will be far too busy and important to spend time in teaching. The College Community Lije 89 Our new administrative department will appreciate how important the college community life is in paying the institution's debts to the commonwealth, and to its own students and their parents, and to its own faculty and reputation. The college will strive constantly and earnestly to prepare itself to pay these debts by apply- ing to itself the very best administrative methods which other and ever larger public-service corporations adopt to enable them to pay the debts which they have as- sumed to the state, to their own employees and to those who depend upon .these, and to their own stock- holders, creditors and confreres. The importance in the college economy of the col- lege community life, and of wisely managing it and the problems which it produces, will be even more evident after we have considered carefully the college home life, which touches and mingles with it at every point. CHAPTER IX THE COLLEGE HOME LIFE LET us still further contract our field of discussion of the student life, and consider that portion of this ninety per cent of the undergraduate's time which is spent, not on the campus, or in athletics, or in touch with the main student body, but in the close companionship of his intimates or the comparative seclusion of his college home, and which we shall call his college home or fam- ily life. A moment's thought will make us realize that a col- lege student must have some kind of home life dur- ing the four years which intervene between his parents' home and that in which he will be the breadwinner. If we had carefully thought out this dual nature of the student life we should long ago have perceived that many things in college, which we loosely think of as social, belong in fact to the home life. We should not confuse the social and home factors in any instance. The college home life may be dwarfed, hidden, almost unrecognizable but it will be there. It may be spent in luxury or penury; in a dormitory, in a village or city boarding place, or in a fraternity house; it may be harmful, helpful or neutral but it will be there, and essentially like any other home life in its nature and 9 o The College Home Lije 91 effects, and in the manner in which it can be affected and molded for better or worse. In influence and effect it closely resembles the stu- dent's boyhood home, for it largely determines, possibly throughout life, the purity or impurity of his thoughts, habits and language; his personal power over his fellow- men, or, in college phrase, his ability as a "mixer"; his intellectual and moral attainments ; and his readiness to receive and assimilate religious impressions. In other words, it affects, in every plane, his life as a citizen in college and in after years. There is this strictly home life for every college student which in large part decides the character of the soil into which the good seed shall fall especially when the seed is moral or religious in character and this home life is where the earlier good influences of the parents' home are most frequently undone and de- stroyed and the seeds of moral decay are sown. It will often depend upon his college home life whether the student is open to the higher religious and moral lessons which cannot usually be impressed in the modern class room or lecture, but which must come, if they come at all, through other agencies. ( One great cause for the falling off of candidates for the ministry will be found in the neglect of the college home life of the young men who leave their parents' homes with high religious ideals and purposes, but who are soon diverted from any high aims by the noxious atmosphere of their college homes. This part of the institution must be purified and uplifted, or else most religious instruction and power will be largely wasted 92 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges and through our own shortsightedness. The home is the great foundation for widespread and continuing re- ligious growth, and this is true in regard to the college home. If, then, we are to hope to make any radical, con- tinuing and widespread improvement in college moral and religious conditions, we must begin in the lives of the college homes, which the institution itself can never greatly influence, because as a quasi state it cannot in- terfere in the ordinary affairs of the home, and because interference from without in such affairs is usually re- sented and seldom helpful. The college can perma- nently and wisely affect the life of its homes chiefly through its human agents and their personal influence for good with those who from time to time govern or are responsible for the home's life. The influence of the personal character of the teacher, which we should never lose, will come through his manhood working on the manhood of others, and not through his teaching or learning as such. But the soil of the home life must be kept open and rich chiefly through the personal influence and example of those who are in touch with it daily and hourly, and who know it through and through. Here the college is on solid ground. This college home life must be affirmatively enno- bling and uplifting or it will be quite the contrary. It must be constantly affected by strong and usually older characters, whose influence must be exerted, silently but surely, within itself. It must have a power for good, inherent in itself, and must not expect to find any true The College Home Life 93 substitute for this in some mystic influences that the college, or Y. M. C. A., or any other extrinsic agency, institutional in its nature, can exercise from without. Our tendency is to look to institutions and organizations to do those things which can be accomplished only by ourselves. These outside agencies are artificial creatures which may stimulate and inspire, but which can never supplant the normal home force. As no state, community or institution can or should usurp our place as parents in our own home, so neither the college nor the faculty as a body, especially in the large universities, should be expected to control directly the college home lives of the students, for they can never take the place of an inherent and osmotic force working from within in the absence of which there can be no true home. But this force must be permanent not shifting from year to year. It must have real authority even if it uses only moral suasion. It must rule by the consent of the governed and because they appreciate that it works for their best good. It must^have power away from the home as well as within its walls and follow the student, even to the strange city, and everywhere nerve him against the terrible temptations which con- stantly beset him. Whether it be good, bad or in- different, there is such a moral force at work in every college home. Except as this force is ennobled we can- not hope for permanent religious or moral improvement among our students; and it must be Ennobled by human example and sympathy and not by institutional or- dinance. In this respect the college home of the young 94 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges student resembles the boarding schools of which Dr. Endicott Peabody, head master of the Groton School, says: "They [boarding schools] are likely to become very bad if they are not positively good, for boys are great missionaries for good or for evil. And so you must get the older boys interested in the school. They must be so led as to really care for its best life, and to see that they are only loyal to the school when they are serving its higher interests. In this way the community can be made thoroughly thoroughly wholesome, and it will not be a "Fool's Paradise," as some of our institutions are, but a place in which it is a delight and inspiration to live." We have spent much thought and money upon the pedagogical departments of our colleges, but very, very little in studying the college home life. Yet this is not the least important of the college departments, since it largely determines the effectiveness of the others upon individual students. It was the most important in our forefathers' eyes, for they saw that only through it could they prepare the good ground for the good seed and make good citizens. We are blameworthy if, while improving the seed and the sowers, we have neglected the preparation of the soil. We must bend every energy to restore the college home life to its proper relative place in the college economy and coordinate it with the other factors therein. The forefathers were right in believing that this good- ness of the ground could be secured only through the direct and intimate touch of the older man upon the younger. But how, in our large institutions and under modern conditions, are we to bring about a close touch The College Home Lije 95 between the students and older men which shall con- stantly uplift the younger men in their college family lives? Is there any agency through which this is being or can be done? Or anything to indicate that up to the present time only one such agency has been developed in a large way? If, under modern conditions, there has been any distinct and widespread growth and develop- ment of the college home, we should study it most care- fully and with an open mind, and, if possible, seek by it to improve the soil in which we are fruitlessly sowing so much good seed, and use it as a model for building up other helpful homes which shall embrace every stu- dent. \ CHAPTER X THE GREEK-LETTER FRATERNITIES AND THE COLLEGE HOME AT first the Greek-letter fraternities were mere college secret societies. In their second stage they became social bodies, with a secret lodge room and lodge night, but with few other cohesive factors within the chapter itself or between the various chapters. In their present and third period they have developed into home-build- ing agencies, wherein many rich and influential alumni and earnest and energetic undergraduates are laboring together to erect college homes, and thereby solve to a limited extent the modern problems in the home life arising out of increasing numbers and changed dormi- tory and social conditions. As we look back we can perceive how inevitable it was that, as fast and as far as the college ceased to pro- vide true college homes, the students and alumni must provide substitutes; and for this the fraternities fur- nished the natural instrumentality, for they were in close touch with many rich and influential alumni, and were such keen rivals that each was sure to copy any such radical step in advance as the building of chapter houses. The only home controlled by the college which at all resembles that of the older institutions now survives in a few of the women's colleges with their 96 The Fraternities and the College Home 97 small and separate dormitory houses, where many of the students room and eat. But all the women in these institutions comprise less than three per cent of our college and university students, and therefore the few dormitory houses which they possess house even a smaller percentage of the total college membership. As to the rest of the students (ninety-seven per cent), the tendency as to college homes has been decidedly in an opposite direction. The state colleges and univer- sities contain more than one half of all the students ! and their enrollment is increasing at about twice the rate of that of the private institutions (ante, p. 8). But the state universities, following the German custom for the most part, have provided practically no dormi- tories, but have relegated their students to the execrable boarding houses of a typical college town. One state university president writes: " We have a strong feeling in a university town like this, where there are 2,300 students in a town of 10,000, that we can maintain the home life of students by really dissemi- 'nating them in homes. We find, however, that there is a tendency to boarding houses and distressingly poor living, hence our movement looking toward the commons with cer- tain dormitory privileges. The fraternities are aiding us by having their own homes. We are now tending toward the erection of a commons social headquarters, and with some dormitory privileges. It is estimated that the universities by furnishing lodging to not exceed twenty- five per cent of their students may be able to regulate the sanitary and moral accommodations in the homes that are open to students." In the very mail which brought this letter I received a college paper in which an undergraduate wrote of 1 " Individual Training in Our Colleges," p. 138. 98 The Reorganization of Our Colleges "the homeless waifs of this dormitory-scarce college," although twenty per cent of his fellows were housed in the ancient college dormitories and almost fifty per cent in fraternity houses. How such a letter illumines the growth of the Greek- letter fraternity homes. What is there homelike or home-making about the average cheap boarding house of a college town. On the contrary, for the student its tendency is rather "to drive him to drink," or some- thing worse. The above letter, written in 1908, shows how the college must be looking backward when it has "a strong feeling" that a country town of 10,000 inhabitants (and even the very best university town, as that one undoubtedly was) can possibly furnish uplift- ing and ennobling homes for one quarter as many stu- dents. Is it any wonder that beautiful and attractive fraternity houses have multiplied when the colleges have avowedly pursued the policy of making a boarding house in a college town the best home that the institu- tions themselves can offer? Modern dormitories repre- sent a permanent investment of from $500 to $2,000 for every student housed; and for some of the fraternity houses even more, for they contain beautiful living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens, in addition to the studies and sleeping rooms. That is, a modern dormi- tory to house loo students costs from $100,000 to $200,- ooo, or even more. Is there any wonder that the colleges have been perfectly willing to allow their alumni to put up fraternity houses at large cost, thus enabling the insti- tutions to put their capital into other things? Is it not plainly evident why the fraternities have grown apace? The Fraternities and the College Home 99 The growth of fraternity houses has changed the center of gravity of the student body. Formerly the college homes of the strong upper classmen were in the dormitories and the under classmen roomed outside if necessary. Now in many colleges the dormitories house the freshmen, while the fraternity buildings are the col- lege homes of the influential upper classmen, and thus the center of student sentiment at least in the East and Middle West. We continue to regard the fraternities as mere secret societies, and hence to give undue significance to their secret -features, failing to realize how much more im- portant are their home features; and that it is chiefly through improving the atmosphere of these homes not because they are fraternity houses, but because they are the only typical and distinctive homes of the ordinary college, and the homes for four years of many of its most influential students that we can hope for better moral and religious results among our undergraduates. It needs no prophetic eye to see that the fraternities will soon fully enter upon their fourth or endowment period in which, their home-building substantially fin- ished, the wealth and energies of each college home, or series of homes, will be turned to establishing endow- ments for improving and conserving the higher home- making and educational functions of the fraternity. Already this movement is under way. Each home built and paid for is in the nature of an endowment. The spread of this movement has been wonderful and inevitable. There are about 370 colleges and universities which contain chapters of some frater- ioo The Reorganization o] Our Colleges nities, and in many of these institutions the houses of the fraternities are among the finest in the town. Millions of dollars have been thus invested. For ex- ample, the properties of the eleven fraternities at Am- herst are worth more than twenty times the amount of Yale's available funds in 1830; and the properties of ten fraternities at Columbia equal in value the total pro- ductive funds of all the colleges at the beginning of the last century. Since the older private institutions have thus come, more and more, to depend upon the fra- ternities for housing space, and merely get along with patching up their ancient barnlike dormitories, and the state universities have avowedly pursued the course of not having any dormitories at all, it is not difficult to see why the fraternity home is now the typical college home, and in many cases the best type of home in any particular college. But in the fraternities, which are largely responsible for the ninety per cent of the student life of their mem- bers, there is the same lack of administrative care which we shall find to exist in the colleges. ) Their alumni must be made to understand this, and to appreciate that, so long as they maintain these homes, they are respon- sible for each and every one of them, and for the home life of each and every undergraduate member therein. The alumni, working from within and not the college working from without but with the active assistance of the college authorities, must keep these homes clean. These centers are no longer the field in which the college state must exercise its home-making functions. These have passed to the owners and proprietors of the several The Fraternities and the College Home 101 homes, but the college has the clear right to demand that the owners shall keep their several homes so that they shall be a positive aid to the college work. One old and influential fraternity is annually spend- ing thousands of dollars to secure the wise direction and constant personal touch in its lodges and among its alumni of a permanent and uniquely equipped field secretary, who seeks to insure that only the best fitted freshmen are admitted, and that throughout their course these students shall be in constant and close touch in their college home lives with strong and earnest alumni who are personally and intimately acquainted with each undergraduate, and who, through a long series of years, come to exert an uplifting educational .and moral power from within the lodge which must greatly increase the likelihood that the good seed will fall into good ground. This is no longer an experiment. After four years of such work this fraternity can measure up some of the direct educational results from its endeavors to hold itself strictly accountable for the intellectual and moral conditions of its own college homes. It finds its num- bers greater than ever before, and that its percentage of loss of active members from every cause is less than twenty per cent of the average loss of the colleges in which it has chapters, and that its loss from poor scholarship is even smaller. It finds that one half its chapters, with one half its total membership, did not lose a single man during the first half of the last college year, and that a very large proportion of its apparent losses have been offset by the men who, through its in- fluence, returned to college and finished their courses. IO2 The Reorganization of Our Colleges Yet the undergraduate members of this fraternity are probably on an average as wealthy and as active socially as those of any other. The constant touch of the local alumni, under the lead of an organized administration, has shown what a fraternity is capable of doing in the college lives of its undergraduates. As this book proposes fraternity and college reorgani- zation upon a strictly business basis, and largely through their business alumni, it is not improper thus to refer to the success which has already followed this initial ex- periment of fraternity reorganization by business and professional alumni along modern administrative lines. This experiment has demonstrated beyond cavil that, entirely without pedagogical initiation or supervision, there is an inherent power in the fraternity alumni to make their home in any particular college community stand for the best that such a home should stand for in any community ; that often the chief obstacles to enno- bling a fraternity home are the debasing influences of the atmosphere of the college community life ; and that not- withstanding the steady downpull of the college com- munity, but not without a great cost of thought and care, the college home can be so kept that it is inspiring intellectually and morally. Q. E. D. A successful ex- periment under normal conditions and with ordinary agencies is worth a hundred theories, and this is what is offered to the alumni of other fraternities as a demon- stration of what they, too, can accomplish. If anyone doubts the assertions of this book in relation to the general student life and the college homes and their place in training the future citizen and in rounding The Fraternities and the College Home 103 out the work of the college instructor, let him assume the position of field secretary in a good fraternity, and learn what a load he must carry on his heart and mind when he attempts to raise his own fraternity homes against the steady downdrag of the student life, es- pecially where he has to deal with students who have plenty of money, or too much for their real good. Or let the thoughtful alumnus learn from such an un- doubted expert in student life the true conditions which prevail in the majority of the homes of his own Alma Mater, and he will begin to realize what proportions the home life department assumes in the mind of one who thoroughly investigates these conditions in order to pro- pose reorganization along strictly business lines. When he sees the influences which he must meet, he will un- derstand that the college is not equipped to do this work unaided, and must avail itself of every possible help. To such an investigator home-making will mean far more than home-building. The home-building is but a matter of dollars, and bricks and mortar, but the home- making is character-building with all which that im- plies in and upon the graduate and undergraduate factors which are necessary to a good college home. I have a deep-rooted conviction that what one fra- ternity can do, has done, and is doing, other fraternities can do if they will but consciously pass from their home- building to their home-making periods. Earnest talks with earnest alumni of other fraternities convince me that the time is ripe for this great forward movement among the alumni of our colleges, and that the fullest IO4 The Reorganization of Our Colleges and most cordial cooperation among the college homes and those who in the larger sense have charge of them must be one of the first steps forward toward a business reorganization. This feeling of direct responsibility for the college family lives of their undergraduate brothers is increasingly abroad in all the fraternities and will soon work out great results, and already most fraterni- ties have partially endowed some portions of their work. The sectarianism of the churches was weakened when Sabbath schools were formed and the lay workers in these broke over church lines and united in laboring for the young. Panhellenism will come, but not until the alumni workers in each fraternity fully organize as home- makers, and thus are made to realize that cooperation and not isolation will solve the problems which are common to all, for they are merely the common problems of the college home. I wish to bear most cordial witness to the very strong feeling which I find among the leading alumni of sister fraternities as to their duties in regard to their under- graduates. This has not yet fully crystallized, but it is coming fast and will take form almost before we know it. I believe that the fraternities will do their splendid part in the great college reorganization which must soon come far more quickly and thoroughly than the majority of the colleges will do theirs. Our fraternities are still absorbed with their home-building, but will speedily assume and wisely exercise the home- making functions which, in her evolution into a quasi state, have logically and necessarily fallen from Alma Mater's hands. The Fraternities and the College Home 105 No patent is claimed for the conception that strong, clean alumni, acting permanently within their fraternity home, work powerfully for a better life therein. This has always been so and would be in any home. But there is plainly in sight an advance movement to sys- tematically organize, develop and endow the fraternity as a home- making force, and such a movement, with our most influential alumni behind it, will be sure of success. A thoughtful student of modern under- graduate conditions must realize that our fraternities furnish the only broad and effective means so far de- veloped and now available for permanently reaching the college home lives of any considerable number of students in any considerable number of institutions. No other home-building or home-making force is now at work among our American colleges in a large way and along well-defined and philosophically correct lines. Furthermore, in the nonfraternity colleges there is no similar agency whereby the alumni are systematically put in touch with the family lives of the undergraduates. I have discussed with the college authorities, alumni and undergraduates of the leading nonfraternity col- leges the relations of their graduates to the under- graduates in the college home plane, and have found that, almost without exception, there was not even a conception of close cooperation between the alumni and students such as prevails in a good fraternity chap- ter. In the leading nonfraternity university it was baldly put by an undergraduate as follows: "The alumni are back numbers, and if they do not mind their own business we will make them do so. We io6 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges have no use for them, except to help us out in athletics." Leading alumni have assured me that this is the proper attitude, and instructors who had come from fraternity colleges have repeatedly told me that they had been shocked to find that these words correctly expressed the sentiments with which the alumni were regarded by the undergraduates in that university. Up to the present time there is no agency in the nonfraternity college through which the influence of the alumni can be per- manently and surely exerted in the college home. It is not a question of the fraternity or nonfraternity home, as we superficially think. It is ever and always the question of the college home life for every under- graduate, whether a fraternity member or not. Fur- thermore, it is the question of whether we have failed to give due thought to one of the great departments of our colleges, and whether this is not another unanswerable argument for a college reorganization upon business principles. On every side I am met by the assurances of the best workers among our students that the college authorities and faculty cannot, unaided, solve the prob- lems which arise in the student life department. This is clearly stated in the following letter from President Harry Pratt Judson, of Chicago University: "There is no doubt that in any college the general social and moral conditions are almost wholly beyond faculty con- trol. Overt acts can be dealt with by quasi legal processes. These, however, like many governmental remedies, do not go beyond the surface. The evils which exist are undoubted. They can be reached only outside the faculty and by agencies which come in immediate social contact with student life. ... Of course a university like ours is under condi- The Fraternities and the College Home 107 tions quite different from those attending an institution which is primarily a college. Most of our students are graduates of college, and are engaged in advanced research and pro- fessional work. At the same time, while this modifies the general social conditions, the essentials are left untouched. Financial organization of our institutions of learning may easily be made businesslike; faculty organization, so far as instruction is concerned, may easily be made adequate; those ^agencies which deal with social, moral or spiritual life, however, have to do with far more elusive qualities, and the result is that the organization thus far effected in those lines is entirely inadequate. This is to my mind the great problem which should now be handled by college adminis- trators." | President Schurman, of Cornell, in a recent annual report, says: "While the intellectual and scholarly spirit and organ- ization are on a high plane, the social life leaves much to be desired. The great majority of the young men all except those in fraternities are scattered in boarding and lodging houses throughout the city. The experience of American students seems to show that the fraternity house, accom- modating two or three dozen students, presents in the matter of size and arrangement an ideal for the residential hall; it is large enough for a community and not too large for intimate acquaintance and friendship; it provides studies, bed-rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining-room and commons room." When one speaks favorably of the part which the fraternities have played and can play in solving a por- tion of the college home life problem, he is continually met with the suggestion, "But that does not provide for the nonfraternity men." This is true and lamentable, but it is an arraignment of the colleges and not of the fraternities, and merely proves that substantially all the progress so far made toward a wide solution of the io8 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges college home problem has been made by the fraternities and not by the colleges. College dormitories, whether with or without commons, are usually barracks, and not homes in the true sense, and are simply a barracks form of solving the college home life problem. It must be conceded, therefore, that the question of homes for the nonfraternity men is merely that portion of the institu- tion's own problem of providing and governing homes for all its students which the fraternities have not solved for it; and that it is what the fraternities have done which has thrown into bold relief this failure of the colleges to do anything! The question "How do you provide for the nonfra- ternity members?" leaves the position of the colleges about as follows: "We have felt compelled to give up building dormitories. We have quite overlooked the inherent difference between a college home and a room somewhere in a college town. We have considered our duty done if our students could find some shelter under the roofs of the college village or town, which expects, somehow or other, to get its chief living out of the college students, for the students' trade is its most important asset. 1 Suddenly we realize that the fra- ternities have acquired a monopoly of the homes and the college of the barracks; and that it is the social and other features of the home which the nonfraternity members are clamoring for, and which make them en- vious of the fraternity members. For instead of de- 1 In one state university town this has been found to aggregate at least $600,000 a year, which is five per cent on $12,000,000, although the total endowment of the university in question was less than $3,000,000. The Fraternities and the College Home 109 pending upon the college, some of the undergraduates, with the financial aid of the alumni, have erected beau- tiful homes, and thereby have made even more apparent the failure of the institution to provide for any true form of college home life. Since then the fraternities have solved this problem in part, and thereby have made the college failure more evident, it is the duty of the fra- ternities (on the ground that one good turn deserves another!) to go on and solve the remainder of this problem of the college or to show the institution how it can itself do this." In other words, it is not an edifice but the associations of a home which the nonfraternity men crave. They know that the brotherhood of the fraternity is a living force which extends to every phase of life, and it is this personal and vital interest in the individual which each man hungers for, and which now- adays few get except in the fraternity homes. Too often the fraternities are the only factors by which at present the college course can round out the social and home sides of its training of the future citi- zen. The assistance which the fraternities have rendered to the college in performing this portion of its duty to the commonwealth must not be overlooked or sneered at. In this regard the question is not as to whether the jraternities have done their part well, or as well as the colleges used to do, but rather whether the colleges have done anything at all. If, then, the college home con- ditions have become bad it has not been primarily the fault of the fraternities, but rather because the institu- tions have done substantially nothing, and have not even given the subject any intelligent study. no The Reorganization oj Our Colleges The president of a splendid institution, with excep- tional advantages and unexceptional local conditions and atmosphere, and where there are no fraternities, writes as follows: "Aren't you misunderstanding the rooming and board- ing situation, especially in coeducational colleges? Here, for example, almost none of the men board by themselves. They have their meals with the young women at the college boarding houses, and at other private houses through the town, where the conditions, if not ideal, are certainly noth- ing like what they often become in clubs where men eat by themselves. And I think you very much underestimate, also, the very reasonable provision that is made for the men scattered through the homes of a community like ours. I am inclined to think here that the experience of the chil- dren's aid societies that almost any home is better than the best institution holds in no small measure for students also, and that the human relations in which the three or four or five students come to the family in whose house they are rooming are not without their value and wholesome influ- ence in the life of the students. I have myself doubted very much, so far as our experience here has gone, whether we should not lose rather than gain by the substitution of men's dormitories for the rooming in private houses; and I have never felt like urging the putting of much college money in this direction." Probably not five per cent of our students are under local conditions or under strong religious influences re- sembling those which prevail in this particular insti- tution. In other places the scattering of the students through an urban population of low morals has had such disastrous effects that the authorities have been forced to attempt to get all undergraduates on to the campus or into fraternity houses. But it is important to note, that, even in this instance of a nonfraternity The Fraternities and the College Home in college, it is the "human relations" which are felt to be the great thing. It is "the human relations" which the fraternity members get and which the nonfraternity undergraduates hunger for, and which are chiefly in the minds of those who ask: "But how do you provide for the nonfraternity men?" It is not easy to discuss nonfraternity conditions from the standpoint of the fraternities, for at least the latter have accomplished something, both in the way of home-building and home-making. They have made many and sad failures and mistakes, but at least they have made a record. For the nonfraternity men very little has been done, even by the colleges; and the col- leges have no record or account to which, like that of the fraternities, we may append "E. and O. E.," "errors and omissions excepted." The history of the college failure in recent years in regard to the college home is so largely made up of errors and omissions that if these should be excepted there would be little left. But surely this failure of the colleges gives them no right to find fault with what the fraternities have ac- complished of their own accord, and often against the opposition of the college itself. A friend, who was a nonfraternity man not from necessity but out of respect for his father's prejudices, but who thoroughly believes in the fraternities, asks me to suggest "some home life for the nonfraternity men, and some remedy for their helpless and hopeless con- dition, sans parents, faculty care, or any saving grace of upper class or alumni supervision." Probably there are many to whom this language seems too strong, but it U2 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges expresses the thoughts which I have heard voiced many times in colleges where the fraternities are strong. My suggestions for supplying these " human rela- tions" for the nonfraternity men will be found in Chapter XXXII. It is at this point that we may see why the fraternities are charged with being exclusive and undemocratic. Certainly they do, so far as they can, attempt to train their members in social etiquette and polished manners, and thus make them men of the world, and round out the home and social sides of their characters; but the college no longer does anything of this kind directly. The advantages thus evidently given by the fraternities are unjustly laid up against them, instead of being charged to their credit and against the colleges them- selves, which should at least attempt, in an intelligent manner, to provide for the nonfraternity men some of the same kind of training which is given in the homes of the fraternities. This was made very clear to me in an earnest conversation with a well-known professor who had put himself through a nonfraternity college, but whose younger brothers had gone through another college in which they became prominent members of fraternities. I found that his complaint was based upon the fact that the fraternities gave social training in polite accomplishments to those who needed them least, having previously had them at home; but that they did not, nor did the college, give this training to the nonfraternity men who were usually most in need of it. But a little discussion made the professor admit that this was in fact a potent argument in favor of the fra- The Fraternities and the College Home 113 ternity and against the college. The former, by in- telligently and effectively exercising its home- making functions, was not preventing the latter from doing the same thing in some manner; but, on the contrary, was showing it, very strikingly, how it could be done and thus that it needed to be done. On the other hand too many, like the professor just mentioned, are finding fault with the only agency in the college which is in- telligently exercising these earlier home-making func- tions of Alma Mater, instead of arousing that dear old woman to provide stepmothers if she can no longer attend in person to her students' good manners. This mistaken point of view lies at the bottom of many of the complaints against the fraternities. They are unjustly accused of being undemocratic, aristocratic and exclu- sive, merely because, in the privacy of well-kept homes, they do well their own home- making work, and thus make clear Alma Mater's failure either to round out this side of the characters of the nonfraternity men or to provide a substitute to carry on this work, although the nonfraternity men undoubtedly need it more than the average fraternity member. The complaint is an eminently just one, but against the wrong party. Judg- ment should be ordered for the respondents and against the complainants, with heavy costs. It is clearly evident, therefore, that the enormous growth of the fraternity homes has not been fortuitous. The fraternities, in their present shape, have grown out of the need for a new form of college family life; they have in part supplied such need, and thereby have directed attention to it; but they have not created the H4 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges need, and, like other homes, they are largely limited, in supplying that need, to the good they can do within their own doors and to the example which they can set to those without. In our review of the history of college administrative conditions we shall find many proofs of low college ideals, practice and methods. But it is sur- prising that the clergymen and other clean men of our college faculties should not have studied and under- stood this attempt of the undergraduates to find sub- stitutes for the earlier dormitory homes, and should not have deemed it a sacred duty to join intelligently with the home-building forces of the fraternities to insure that these homes, which are the great foundation of the student life, should be kept pure and ennobling. Yet such is plainly the case. Here again, with no proper administrative department to study their problems, our institutions have been looking backward, and have not understood how the college secret society was develop- ing into the college home; nor have they perceived that the fraternities could solve only a small portion of this home problem, and that the college itself must do the rest. Some of the terrible results, during the past thirty years, of this fatal and unexplainable blindness will be- come clear as we study the vices engendered and fostered in the college home. ' The college family life, like that of any other home, is concealed from the public view and fully known only to members of the family. Otherwise it is not a true family life. To be ideal and to give it permanence, the college home should embrace the upper and lower class- men, the graduate and undergraduate for all these The Fraternities and the College Home 115 can be educated and developed therein. Our children educate us almost as much as we educate them. The older brother is trained and developed through the responsibility of setting an example to and protecting the younger children who look up to him as the "big brother." An only child is likely to be spoiled because he lives only to himself. Hence there are true educa- tive conditions in the fraternity home where members of all classes are intimately gathered together. President Wilson, in his memorandum in June, 1907, favoring the proposed residential Quads at Princeton, our chief nonfraternity college, voices this thought in the following significant words: "It is clear to everyone that the life of the university can be best regulated and developed only when the under class- men are in constant association with upper classmen, upon such terms as to be formed and guided by them." He states one of the objects of the Quads to be "to give to the university the kind of common conscious- ness which apparently comes from closer sorts of social con- tact, to be had only outside the class room, and most easily to be got about a common table and in the contacts of a common life." But it is a grave question whether to-day this home consciousness can be developed in groups of one hundred or more students arbitrarily gathered together. A col- lege home to be successful and permanent must be small and congenial, because it selects and trains its own mem- bers, and has some of the separateness and exclusive- ness of a homef In too many institutions the moral tendency of the n6 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges student life as a whole is distinctly downward, and any fraternity chapter therein will encounter great difficul- ties which attempts consistently to raise its own moral or religious life contrary to the drift of the college itself, which is merely the resultant of the home life of genera- tions of students. The college homes are so true an index of the general student life that if we can know the inner family life of the fraternity homes in a college, we can infallibly construct therefrom the dominant moral influences that rule the ninety per cent of student life in that institution, and thereby determine the true edu- cational results of its other departments. The shortcomings of many of the Greek-letter and other college homes are terrible, as I shall show in the next chapter. But these faults and failures are partly inherent in any college education, and in any home with many members, and always have been; but those of the fraternities are principally chargeable to the col- lege authorities and alumni, who have regarded chiefly the financial and pedagogical departments and have neglected and misunderstood the college administration and home life departments. We must learn to appreciate that, in the training of the future citizen, the ninety per cent of the student life, with all its activities and interests, may be greater, edu- cationally as well as mathematically, than the ten per cent of pedagogy, and quite as well worthy of earnest and intelligent thought and action; and that the heart of that ninety per cent for any individual is his college home life, whatever form that life may take. Let us, then, turn frankly but sorrowfully to the real conditions The Fraternities and the College Home 117 of some of the college homes at present and in the im- mediate past. It is unfortunate, at this time when we need to think clearly on the true meaning of the college home, that the question should be complicated by the high-school fra- ternities, which are merely one of the pseudo growths that accompany all important social or religious move- ments. The home features of the college fraternity, which have been its reason for being and growing, are entirely lacking in the high-school society, where the members still live in their parents' homes. But the fraternities have themselves principally to thank if their sillier and more foolish features, the remains of their own secret-society stage, have been reproduced by their high-school admirers and imitators. CHAPTER XI THE COLLEGE HOME AND COLLEGE VICES IT is with extreme reluctance that I pen this chapter. Specific references to the matters here treated were pur- posely omitted in my " Individual Training in Our Col- leges." To continue that policy at this time would, to my mind, be criminal; because it would fail to point out the terrible toll of lives that has marked our failure to realize long ago the true conditions surrounding our students in their college community and home lives, and to thoroughly reorganize our institutions of higher learning so that their direct aim shall be to give a train- ing for citizenship and scholarliness along something like the lines herein suggested, and upon all the planes of the future citizenship of their students as individuals. My previous omission was not because of a lack of conviction as to the facts, but because of a repugnance to all public mention of such things, enforced by the reluctance of a lawyer to assert any fact where he did not have, or feel authorized to produce, the legal proof of his statements. For the things here spoken of are not legal crimes in most of our states, and therefore are not to be found in our court records; that is, they lie, not within the prohibition of the written law, but in the realm of the relations of the citizen to the citizen and of the citizen to his home. They are moral, not legal, de- 118 The College Home and College Vices 119 linquencies, and hence in most cases we can expect to find only moral, not legal, evidence as to their existence. All mention of them is or used to be tabooed in polite society, and even now they will very largely be denied by those who ought to be the last to deny them; for they have shut their eyes to them, and have not studied them, although they have taken place under their very eyes. In studying college vices since they are moral de- linquencies rather than legal crimes or misdemeanors we must realize that, as in all similar cases, the evidence is not often direct, but is hearsay, and on suspicion, and largely prejudiced, and that we are likely to get bald assertions, and iterations and reiterations, rather than anything in the form of even moral evidence. Those who know the facts by experience exaggerate the evils, and those who do not indulge in the evils belittle the facts. Above all, the investigator must not be an alarm- ist, or a prude or an informer. The most that he can do is quietly and confidentially to get as much and as good evidence as possible, and, so far as it can properly be done, submit this to disinterested persons who are likely to be in a position to corroborate or disprove his conclusions. In dealing with the college conditions de- scribed in "Individual Training in Our Colleges," I pursued this method, but when I had gathered my proofs together I was appalled at what I had found in many institutions, and at the conclusions which must logically be drawn therefrom. I felt that I must be an alarmist, and that my conclusions must be essen- tially false, since they differed so widely from the com- I2O The Reorganization of Our Colleges mon view of the colleges and their authorities; and I was unwilling to publish those conclusions without further confirmation. Therefore I had printed thirty impressions of the first rough draft of the book, and submitted copies to the former and present Commis- sioners of Education of the United States, to college presidents and other well-known educators, and to college men, young and old, whose opinions were en- titled to confidence. It was only after I had gathered back these thirty volumes, with the comments noted on their margins, and had thoroughly digested them, and further verified some points, that I felt warranted in publishing the book. The universal approval with which its statements and conclusions have been re- ceived, and the many confirmatory letters received, even from those who were utter strangers, have made me feel sure of my position, and have convinced me that I owe a duty to higher education, and to the parents and youth of our country, and to the commonwealth, to speak plainly of certain conditions of the college homes and student life as I believe them to be in too many instances. I willingly take full responsibility for what is here said, and ask no one to share this with me, for I have carefully weighed it and assumed it with my eyes open. I appreciate that what I say cannot be effectively dis- proved, in part because no names or places are given. I have had the opportunity to learn the facts as to student life and college homes from Maine to Cali- fornia, and from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Dakota to the farthest South. I have talked and corresponded The College Home and College Vices 121 with hundreds of college professors and officials, stu- dents, deans, medical men and recent graduates, and have carefully examined, weighed and sifted the evi- dence, and shall use but a very small portion of what I have gathered. I am not attempting to be sensational, but rather to point out an unstudied evil which is at the very bottom of our college waste heaps, and which must be understood by parents, alumni and preparatory school teachers if we are to rouse the college authorities from what is too often their fatal torpor in regard to these things, and if we are to reorganize the colleges upon anything like business principles, and if the colleges are to perform their duties as public servants. These conditions differ in different institutions and in different communities and at different times, but have never been properly or adequately studied through the right agencies in any college. Here again we must not overlook the radical differ- ences of conditions prevailing in our various institu- tions. Some are practically free from the evils herein- after referred to; others reek with them; and there are all grades between these extremes. Whether or not these evils prevail in a given institution, and to what extent, is indeed an important question. But even more important is the question whether they are being thoroughly and wisely studied and treated therein. Otherwise they may be suddenly and secretly intro- duced and become widespread because no proper guard was set against them. Parents should investigate the prevailing student, life conditions quite as much as the pedagogical claims of the institutions to which they are 122 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges proposing to send their sons. They have a right to de- mand that as definite information shall be made avail- able upon this subject as upon others as to which the catalogues are very explicit. College sentiment or, if you please, the college at- mosphere is like any other pervading sentiment and atmosphere, intangible but vital and cogent. It is the residuum of the lives and ideals of many college gen- erations which have solidified into influences which dominate the life of the college community and of its several homes. It is not transient, but a tradition with a tremendous power to influence the future students who shall feel it and live in it, but who are not in the least responsible for it. An impressionable boy must take his college home, in its broader or narrower sense, as he finds it, and when he leaves it, it will probably remain in about the same condition as that in which he found it. President Eliot says: ("The phrase college spirit undoubtedly describes a real thing. . . . Slight differences in tone or atmosphere may produce striking effects on the prevailing quality of the grad- uates of different colleges, and these effects are often trace- able to differences in social organization the complex result of traditions, manners and customs, and transmitted opinions and sentiments."] 1 Let us not blame the young man who is harmfully affected by the noxious and insidious influences of his college home, but rather his elders, the college author- ities and alumni, who have not studied, understood or wisely combated those influences, and the parents who 1 " University Administration," p. 225. The College Home and College Vices 123 take the greatest care about his early home, but sub- stantially none about his college home. The miasmatic atmosphere for which the young man was in no sense responsible, but which has been passed down to him from earlier college generations, has but worked out its natural and almost inevitable result upon him. As already shown, the college state can have very little direct influence by law or ordinance upon the homes of its citizens, especially where they own and control their homes. Its really beneficent influence must be indirect; by man upon man; by the individual representing the college acting upon the various dominant factors in the college homes, whether those factors be graduates or undergraduates. But this indirect influence of the college has the advantage of being a permanent one, which does not change from year to year, and which, for this reason, can bring to bear upon its present prob- lems the influence of alumni who have felt in the past its potency for good upon their own lives. The power of the alumni over undergraduate affairs, so strikingly shown in football and other athletic management, and in many instances in good fraternity chapters, is one of the great inherent agencies for good in the college economy which is now substantially unused and running to waste; and thereby having a direct tendency to pile high the college waste heap. In many of our larger colleges and universities, and in too many of our smaller ones, a very considerable part of the college home life is morally rotten terribly so. Some of the smaller and older colleges, with grand records in the past, have as low a standard in student 124 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges morals as the larger universities. Some of the worst conditions prevail in minor denominational institutions which are presumed to be ultrareligious and to be the chief places for furnishing clergymen for such denomi- nations. Lest these statements be too sweeping, let me again caution the reader that each institution must be judged by itself, and stand or fall alone, and at the particular period under review. In some institutions from twenty per cent to forty per cent of the graduate and undergraduate students consort with lewd women, and at least as large a ratio drink to excess at times. The proportions are much higher in the upper classes than in the lower, showing that these vices are largely the direct result of influences which prevail in the college community life and the college home. In some instances at least twenty per cent of the students have been venereally diseased be- fore their course is finished. All these things, with quite too much gambling, are evils of the college home life, and must be fought therein, not by college or- dinances but by new home influences. Confirmation of these assertions must be sought among those inti- mately acquainted with the student life and the col- lege homes. These appalling figures are based on the carefully sifted estimates of the students themselves in many widely separated institutions, checked off by men whose professional or other college connections have brought them into close personal touch with the college home life. The testimony of a member of the faculty as such may be, and sometimes has been found to be, practically worthless in regard to these matters, for they The College Home and College Vices 125 are entirely outside of his pedagogy and therefore out- side of his department. They are usually studiously concealed from the faculty by common consent of the student body, because the attitude of the faculty is often that of detecting and punishing individuals, and not that of broad-minded statesmen, studying and im- proving the underlying conditions of the community and the private lives of its citizens. This attitude of the faculty sometimes arrays against them even the best among the undergraduates, who certainly are not sneaks or detectives spying upon the private lives of their fellow-students. But, on the contrary, all that te best in the student body can and should be brought to the aid of the college in rooting out the causes of such evils and in building up an enlightened public senti- ment which shall frown upon their continuance. Here is another instance where the college might profit by the example of the business concern, and, through its administrative department, "make all things work to- gether for good" in preparing the soil into which the seed is to fall. In considering as briefly as may be the evil conditions of the college home, let us determine, first, whether, logically, we should not expect just such evils because of the local and other conditions in many institutions; secondly, whether these evils have not often been made worse and more chronic by the. course taken by the college authorities and alumni; and, thirdly, let us look at some instances which support the charges made. First. Just such conditions are to be expected in very many institutions. 126 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges The standard of personal morality in many of our cities and communities is very low, especially in mining and factory centers where there is a large foreign or floating population and many unmarried women earn- ing merely starvation wages. In such communities the old standards of personal morality are largely un- known. Drunkenness and the social evil are rife, and there is no well-defined and long-standing moral senti- ment of the community to frown upon personal im- morality. On the contrary, the public sentiment of a large proportion of the inhabitants as to the social evil, drunkenness and gambling is thoroughly debased, and is constantly being lowered by many vicious influences. The percentage of low grog shops, of crime and of im- morality is exceedingly large. Many of our colleges and universities are located in or near hotbeds of this character, and many students in other institutions come from such localities, or are descended from fathers whose early lives have not been impeccable in this re- gard and who do not claim to their sons that they have been. Such influences as these are never on the de- fensive, but carry on an active and insidious offensive campaign of solicitation and temptation. Moreover, the local conditions of college towns often change, sud- denly or slowly, from those which were ideal to those which are frightful, or a near-by factory city offers all sorts of solicitations with few chances of detection. Ex- cept in large cities these evils are much more likely to be perpetrated in a neighboring factory center than in the college town. One dean, who has been unusually successful in pro- The College Home and College Vices 127 gressive and effective religious work among college un- dergraduates, writes of this: "There ought to be a law, federal if possible, prohibiting the presence of such things at a college center. Communi- ties regard colleges as sources of revenue and should be re- quired to choose the college or the dives and saloons. Look at the colleges located in towns next to the River, across which, on the side, such things line the banks. State laws are inadequate and local option is too uncertain. All these vices huddle in college towns, seeking like buzzards the easiest prey. Something of this kind is possible, it seems to me, where the government makes ap- propriations, as in the case of state colleges and universities." These are not fanciful pictures, but facts bearing directly upon the question of college reorganization. For our purposes they are not matters for the social settlement in the slums of a great city, but everyday influences acting upon the college home lives of a very large proportion of our undergraduates, and affecting their training for citizenship. They are the things which make the ninety per cent of the student life the most important department of the college because it is to determine the results in college and in after life of the work of the other departments. They also bear upon the great duty which the college owes to the common- wealth and to all connected with its own self. But another terrible aspect of the social evil in college is that the women are frequently of a low class, who also consort freely with mill hands, miners and rounders of the worst type, and are almost of necessity diseased and almost as certain to communicate these diseases. From the very nature of the case our college students are not financially able to indulge in expensive luxuries of this 128 The Reorganization of Our Colleges kind, and as a matter of fact their indulgences are fre- quently with such a low grade of women that disease is almost sure to follow. And this is what is happening and for years has been happening daily throughout our institutions of higher learning; and not only in them but among the boys in our large preparatory schools and high schools, especially during vacations. The preva- lence of these evil conditions constantly tends to fur- ther lower college sentiment and make it easier for any student to drift with the crowd; and strange as it may appear, those who have become diseased often seem most anxious to justify their condition by inducing others to join in their vices. ' Moreover, at this very period of life, when nature intended that the sexes should meet in pure and natural association, our young college men are largely deprived of opportunities to meet young women of their own station in life, and thus are the more easily tempted by the vile. There are many lowering and evil tendencies and factors in our grouping together thousands of young unmarried men in colleges and universities, which must in a geometrical ratio produce a decline in the personal morals of the individuals and of the college home life, unless actively and wisely combated in the college homes themselves. This tendency, unless studied and checked, must, in the nature of things, grow steadily worse and this has been the case too frequently during the past twenty-five years. Secondly, these conditions have been made worse by the very course of the college authorities and alumni. We would expect the psychologists and philosophers The College Home and College Vices 129 of the faculties and among the alumni to anticipate such a condition of affairs, and to forewarn all factors inter- ested in the problem, and to unite them to combat an evil which cannot stand still, which must be dissected and studied in all its ramifications, and then constantly, wisely and consistently combated, unless it is to assume greater and greater proportions under such favorable surroundings. But comparatively little of this has been done. We have not realized that these great evils are not the products of the college financial, pedagogical or administrative departments, but distinctly and almost solely of the student life, and hence to be studied and combated therein. In some colleges there are lectures upon these subjects, but instead of being treated as the performance of a high duty toward the commonwealth and its homes, the lectures are often so low and broad in character as to do more harm than good, serving as student jokes throughout the course./ In one institu- tion for many years the medical students were openly advised by a prominent professor to have illicit inter- course so that they might better understand some of their studies; with the local results which might have been expected. / On the other hand, not only have our college authorities failed to properly study or combat these evils, but they have too often emphatically and unceasingly denied their existence, when a little exami- nation would have shown them that they were wrong. One professor, in a college situated in a community which morally is notoriously one of the worst in the country, was quite indignant at my suggestion that in his institution any considerable proportion of the under- 130 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges graduates were diseased. But after a frank discussion of facts and local conditions, he admitted that the average might be as high as thirty per cent. Again and again this fatal blindness, and even unwillingness to see, of our college authorities is encountered by those who investigate the college home life from the only sane and safe standpoint, that of the students themselves. On the other hand, there are many who admit the full extent of the evil, but ask what can possibly be done to meet such an insidious enemy. This assurance that these evils do not exist in their own institution, and this failure to have any adequate appreciation of the evil or of the means to be taken to lessen it, are about on a par with the college policy which for years allowed the playing of intercollegiate games away from the home grounds and in the largest cities. This increased the gate receipts, but at the same time so aggravated the growth of vice among the stu- dents that out of very shame the college authorities had to require all games to be played on the home grounds of one of the contestants. An up-to-date administrative department would have foreseen this evil result, or would have felt at once the lowering of the moral tone of the college, and would not have waited to enforce a remedy until the scandal com- pelled action. This is but another instance of how the college is always looking backward ; or, as one astute pro- fessor writes, who has widely studied conditions in many institutions, especially at the West: "I have noted one most curious characteristic among many of my colleagues they cannot rid themselves of the The College Home and College Vices 131 delusion that they are still concerned with the secluded spot- less life of the New England college of eighty years ago." Such delusions as these are not only fatal to the under- graduate, but proof positive that it is impossible for the instructors under modern conditions to do their best work in their own department and at the same time perform satisfactorily the functions of another depart- ment. Our duty to the commonwealth and to all the other interests which center in the college demand that we shall install an up-to-date business administration which shall anticipate evil conditions, and nip them in the bud or offset them so that they shall not ruin the college product or any part of it. But, thirdly, is there any tangible proof of these ter- rible assertions? Unfortunately, yes; although but a few examples will be given to illustrate the failure of these public-service corporations to do their full duty, and the crying need of a business reorganization. This question has been asked in universities where local medical schools afford opportunities for medical investigation which do not exist in the ordinary college, and the following appear to be the facts: In city in- stitutions, or those situated in or very near factory or mining centers, the percentage of evil and disease is usually greatest. This percentage is much larger in the graduate schools than in the academic courses; and in the latter the percentages steadily increase from the lower through the upper classes; and it is not too much to assume that in some cases at least twenty-five per cent of those who complete the professional school 132 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges courses have at some time been diseased. In some places competent authorities put the percentage higher. From one university a professor, whom I had asked about this, writes: " Physicians tell me that venereal disease is common, though not rife, here"; but these terms should be reversed according to the testimony of recent medical graduates from this institution. Admittedly and fortunately, this does not prove that this state of affairs prevails in every place. But it does illustrate my claim that the colleges and universities are not doing their full duty to the commonwealth or them- selves. The institution last referred to has a member- ship which exceeds the combined college enrollment of the whole country sixty years ago. Yet it takes no official account of a state of affairs perfectly evident to candid investigators which largely unfits its stu- dent citizens to do their best work during their course or to grow into the highest type of citizens and parents in after years. From the standpoint of the common- wealth, or of the high interests which the colleges and universities are presumed to safeguard and foster, can I be charged with unfairness or extravagance of lan- guage when I speak of the fatal blindness and apathy of too large a proportion of our college authorities? About a year ago the Associated Press sent out a dis- patch telling how two Roman Catholic priests in a cer- tain city, from their pulpits, had solemnly warned the young women of their parishes not to associate with the students of a neighboring university. Those who are acquainted with the student conditions in that institution know that these priests would be justified in almost any The College Home and College Vices 133 measures which they might take to protect their young women parishioners. A reputable physician has re- cently stated that of his own knowledge all the under- graduate members of a certain fraternity chapter (his own) were diseased, with the exception of three fresh- men who had just been initiated, and that almost all the recent graduates had suffered in the same manner. The dean of long standing of another university, himself a fraternity member, told me that in his institution the student life was so bad that it seemed to him that the upper class and graduate members of the fraternities seemed most anxious to see how short a time could elapse between the regular fraternity initiation and that into the prevalent vices of the student body; and he en- forced this statement with some appalling instances al- most too horrible to believe and certainly to repeat here. In the college homes of some institutions separate towels and other supplies are kept for those who are actively diseased; just as in many such homes there are special rooms and accommodations, " boozatoriums," for those who are brought home drunk. In too many college homes there is a fearful obscenity and filthiness of lan- guage, but this is what is to be expected from the moral conditions prevailing in the student life of those in- stitutions. Some very bad conditions in all these respects are also to be found in many of our preparatory schools; and these habits are carried thence and spread broadcast through the colleges to which the students go, thereby contaminating many youth who come directly from pure home influences. On the other hand, it is the reflex in- 134 The Reorganization of Our Colleges fluence of these lower phases of the college home life that is likely to be reproduced in our high-school fraternities in such an insidious form that they cannot be combated with entire success. The foregoing are but a few examples picked from a mass of evidence, gathered by going to the right place, the college home, and by sifting out the facts as care- fully as possible, and with a full consciousness of the terribleness of the arraignment of present conditions in the student life department. Everywhere the convic- tion is borne home that these conditions are the legiti- mate results of two forces the social and moral ten- dencies of the age and locality, and the fatal blindness of the college authorities and alumni and of parents to the real extent of the social evil, and its accompanying vices, and their theory that prohibition means prevention a survival of the mediaeval methods of the earlier college, instead of a resort to modern scientific methods of at- tempting to locate the underlying cause of the trouble and then grapple with that. But the growth of the drink habit among our students is another chief cause for the lowering of college morals in the college community and home life; and for this, also, the college authorities and alumni are chiefly re- sponsible. While our railroads are enforcing the rule of total abstinence among their employees, and are even requiring one member of a train crew to report another member who has been drinking, our colleges are, in too many instances, directly and indirectly putting a pre- mium on the drink habit and increasing the toll of their undergraduates who must eventually become confirmed The College Home and College Vices 135 dipsomaniacs, and who, when drunk, are liable to yield to worse temptations which would not otherwise ap- peal to them. As an example of how this is sometimes done in- directly by the colleges, we find that in one well-known denominational institution the college politics have for years been practically decided at Saturday night gather- ings in the barroom of a country hotel, where drinking and the low stories of commercial travelers are the preparation of some of the most influential students for the compulsory religious exercises of the Sabbath. It does not require much time spent in the homes of this institution on a Sabbath afternoon to discover that the hotel bar has a greater hold than the college church on many representative undergraduates who largely mold student sentiment. The entering freshman is soon made to feel that he may cut church or sleep through its services, but that he must be early and often at the hotel barroom, if he is to figure in college pol- itics and activities. No faculty in the land is more touchy than this if it be intimated that the personal morals of its students are low so low, in fact, that a large proportion of the well-to-do or prominent under- graduates are grossly immoral, and constant and often heavy drinkers, and have, in neighboring institutions whose own students are certainly not slow, an unenvi- able reputation for being tough. In many institutions if a man wishes to be a strong factor in college politics he must qualify in his earlier years for membership in the junior and senior drinking clubs. This means that for a certain proportion, often 136 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges a large one, of the undergraduates it is a great thing to have the capacity of "a tank" and a marked ability to drink the other fellow under the table. Moreover, the commencement ideals of many of our colleges and the scenes at many alumni banquets are directly conducive to a constant and further lowering of the moral tone of the college community and home life. Recent classes returning for their reunions must provide free beer and the services of professional bar- keepers to prove that they are worthy sons of a noble Alma Mater; and large numbers of undergraduates are urged to drink at these free bars, which are openly patronized by many professors. Do such things throw any light back upon the habits and moral atmosphere of the college lives of the recent graduates? Indeed, it is the honest belief of many young alumni that these moral conditions in the colleges can never be greatly bettered ; that they are inherent in the college and must always be about as bad as at present. They admit the evils, and will tell of the conditions as they knew them in college; but they earnestly contend that the pres- ent moral conditions cannot be permanently improved. They are absolutely correct in their conclusions unless there is a complete reorganization of our colleges upon business principles, and with the new and higher ideals of a college state, and a full appreciation of the duties which are owed to the commonwealth and to the stu- dents who are in training to be citizens therein. Here is another straw to show what must have been the moral atmosphere which these young men breathed in college. A professor writes: The College Home and College Vices 137 "This cannot be put too strongly. One of the greatest difficulties is with the returning graduates, few of whom wish any change except more 'quiet' in this matter." College and fraternity banquets frequently end in drunken orgies. Do such facts tend to prove the truth of the charges here made against the conditions of the undergraduate home life? If so many of our promis- ing alumni, who were prominent in college, use their alumni and fraternity banquets for " drunks," it fol- lows conclusively either that the seeds of these habits were sown in undergraduate days, or else that their college course left their moral characters so weakened that they could not withstand the temptations of after life. I am grieved to say that either explanation proves my case against the colleges and their authorities and alumni. The impressionable youth from the farm, or from the carefully guarded home where all mention of such vices has been constantly avoided, is not the person most to blame if he is perverted by the foul atmosphere for which his elders are largely responsible; or if he imag- ines that he is doing only what the college world is doing when he joins in the vices which he finds prevalent in his own college home and among his intimates, and sanctioned by the example of prominent alumni. At least he has pretty good ground for his belief that this is a fair representation of the whole college life and "that everybody does it." It is not at all surprising that under such conditions we find that a large propor- tion of our students are, before graduation, steady tipplers if not incipient dipsomaniacs. They are not 138 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges content with drinking beer, but must have cocktails and highballs and similar stimulants as regularly as old topers. What would happen in a business department where such an atmosphere was discovered? Do our college authorities or our undergraduates appreciate that many of the latter, if they are to hold responsible positions, must give surety bonds ? And that the bond will not be issued if the applicant is found to be a heavy drinker or immoral? Or that the bond will provide in substance that the employer "will immediately notify the surety in writing upon becoming aware that the employee is gambling, speculating or committing any disreputable, lewd or unlawful act?" Is this the true ideal of a college education for citizenship? It has been claimed that twenty per cent of the men who come to the Water Street Mission, and one third of those who ask for beds at the Bowery Missions in New York City are college men, and that over one hundred college graduates are behind the bars at Sing Sing. This must be taken with the qualification, on the one hand, that it covers not only college graduates, but all those who have had any higher education, here or abroad, corresponding to our college course; and, on the other hand, that it covers but a small fraction of two per cent of our total population. Any decent business ad- ministrative department would long ago have realized that thfe was largely the college waste heap, and that here were sociological problems of the highest moment to it and its future success and which it ought to study first of all. The record could not be as bad as it is if the The College Home and College Vices 139 duty of the college to the commonwealth was really par- amount in the eyes of college authorities and alumni. The position of the college authorities upon this whole question of the student life and the college home is well summed up by a distinguished professor, investigator and thinker, born and educated abroad, who writes: "What you say of the inattention of the authorities can be no more astounding to you than it has long been to me. It is the most nonplussing fact that I have encountered. Most astounding is their satisfaction with things as they are. Did you ever know folk who sang so many paeans to them- selves?" Of this letter a college professor writes: "I greatly doubt the fairness of this. I believe the general attitude to be (i) We cannot do anything to remedy this. (2) If we could, the demands of our professional duties leave us no time." I can only say in passing that this is one of the best arguments that I have heard for a separate administra- tive department which can do something and which has time for that which is far more important and funda- mental than instruction in books, to wit, character- building! Surely the evidence need not be multiplied, as it could easily be, to show that I am justified in my assertion, here repeated, that " in many of our larger colleges and universities, and in too many of our smaller ones, a very considerable part of the college home life is rotten terribly so." I am not now discussing these things from a moral or religious standpoint, but merely as a reorganizer who is trying, in a purely business way, to determine whether 140 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges our colleges do need reorganizing because their admin- istrative and student life conditions which lie at the very foundation of their usefulness to the individual and the commonwealth are thoroughly and unnecessarily bad; and what are the essential elements of the college which must be considered when preparing a plan of reorganization; and what are the evils to be avoided in the future, and the methods by which this shall be done. This is solely a dispassionate discussion of whether our colleges should be reorganized by admin- istrative experts on modern business principles, or by their own pedagogical experts on college ideals and by college methods, so called. Viewing our institutions from the business man's standpoint, and not from that of the moralist or theo- logian or cataloguer, we find vicious methods and ideals which waste the time, strength and temper of teachers and taught; which largely unfit the pupils for future good work, while failing to properly train them as in- dividuals; which fail to use to advantage the various available agencies which would enable them to do better work; which omit to study or combat the influ- ences which corrupt the college community and home life; which build high the college waste heap, yet neglect utterly to study it, or even to realize what a reflection it is upon the institution that the heap steadily grows larger instead of smaller. But there is also another and even higher view that must be taken of this matter. I have shown how the colleges have become quasi states, because of the powers, rights, functions and bounties which have been The College Home and Colleges Vices 141 conferred upon them by the commonwealth, and that in return they owe important reciprocal duties. The home is admittedly at the foundation of the state. The colleges are committing an unutterable crime against the state and all its citizens if, while they are educat- ing our young men, they do not do all in their power to safeguard their future homes from drunkenness and disease. Physicians tell us that one form of these diseases can never be surely cured, and that we can never know certainly that the other form is permanently cured. How well are the colleges repaying their obli- gations to the state and to the public when they allow vice to grow rampant in the college homes it makes but little difference whether disease is "common" or ''rife" and yet do not raise a finger toward concert- edly studying the facts, or toward getting at the real source of the evil, or toward stamping it out, as our Government has stamped out yellow fever in its trop- ical possessions. The colleges are too often blind leaders of the blind, with low ideals, and a terrible record behind them from which they must be rescued by reorganization. I repeat that their record as pub- lic corporations is in many ways far below that of many of their fellow-servants, the public-utilities cor- porations. If, without intelligent study of their own problems and conditions, or the adoption of ordinary business methods amply sufficient to remedy the evils in large part, our colleges are yearly discharging into the body politic thousands of diseased men or incipient drunk- ards who otherwise ought to be largely the fathers of 142 The Reorganization of Our Colleges the educated class in the next generation, the question is one that chiefly affects, not the wrongdoing colleges, firmly secure in their rich and inalienable endowments, but the state and its future, and the helpless families, wives and children which it is bound to protect. Carefully prepared statistics in an old and prominent university indicate that only about seventy per cent of its present graduates marry, and that the average num- ber of children per family is 2.3, including female children, those who die in youth and those who do not marry ; or about forty per cent of the number of children per family a century earlier. It is evident that, if this is anything like a fair average, the ordinary college class does not even reproduce itself, and that the college would actually soon die out if it depended for students solely upon all of the sons born to its graduates. In other words, the college graduates belong to a tree which is dying down, and not to one which is increasing in size. Physicians tell us that the conditions which have been referred to as prevailing in some college homes may be in part responsible for results such as those above named. But however this may be, is it too much for the parents of the land to demand of the college author- ities a strict accounting as to how they have fulfilled the duty which they owe, to the commonwealth and to the homes therein, to train and turn out the highest types of husbands, fathers and friends? At this point the college home touches every home, and its home life affects the future of the state; and the state and every parent in it have the right to demand a reorganization of this part of the college economy, and The College Home and College Vices 143 its proper administration in the future; so that here at least there shall be a college education for citizenship in all its planes. The state cannot assume the functions of the colleges, nor administer their $600,000,000 of funds and property. It can only force them to do their own work properly, and to keep their student life department clean and en- nobling, so that they and their graduates shall not be an actual menace to the state itself and to its innocent citizens, especially in the future. This chapter, to this point, has been submitted to many men prominent in and out of college, and I have been much interested in their replies. One, who is at the head of a great and successful religious movement among undergraduates at the West, writes: " These are hard things but true." Another says: "You have rather understated the facts as I believe them to be in four Southern institutions with whose student condi- tions I am intimately acquainted." One thinks that, from his own experience, the facts must be exagger- ated. Two doubt the advisability of publishing the facts so fully, yet expressly state that they were cor- rectly given. Not one denies that y in the main, the arraignment is justifiable and correct. Not one has a word to say approving the past course oj the colleges in these matters. Others have thanked me for the chapter, and heartily approved of my position therein. One divine, who for many years has been at the head of the college work of a great religious denomination, in answer to my ques- 144 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges tion whether I should publish this chapter, replied : "Yes, by all means; even if you print nothing else." For the purposes of the reorganizer, the question of chief importance is not whether the statements of this chapter are exaggerated. That is merely a matter of degree. The really important questions are quite dif- ferent. Does this chapter correctly point out and define dangerous forms of evil which are unnecessarily prev- alent among our students? And correctly place the exact location of these evils in the college economy? And the manner in which these evils are now regarded by the students, parents and community, and the col- lege and fraternity authorities and alumni? And the methods if any now employed to root out these evils, or minimize their baneful consequences ? Have all those interested in the college problem, or who could contribute to its solution, done their full duty in study- ing this ninety per cent of the student life, and the peculiar surroundings and temptations of the under- graduates in the college community and home, and in applying wise measures to meet the conditions thus revealed? Is the college, as a public corporation, doing its full duty in this respect to the commonwealth? If, after patient investigation, the reorganizer can truthfully answer "yes" to the last two questions, he must feel that he can do little where so many others, who should be better judges, have failed. But if he must answer "no," there is hope that a correct diagnosis will lead to a successful prognosis. To the moralist, the mistakes of the past are a source of regret and complaint; to the reorganizer, a mine of The College Home and College Vices 145 information ; for to him the present and the future are the important things. Wherefore he looks upon the errors of the past as things to be carefully charted that his own bark may sail safely where so many others have been shipwrecked. CHAPTER XII THE DOMINANT POSITION OF THE STUDENT LIFE DEPARTMENT Is there, then, a remedy for the evils of the student life department? I unhesitatingly answer "yes," if we are willing to pursue a philosophical rather than a Puri- tanical course to adopt modern business methods rather than those heretofore recognized as college methods. It is largely because, in the absence of a separate ad- ministrative department, we have not clearly analyzed the fundamental change in the college or fully appre- ciated its significance to state, institution, faculty, stu- dents and parents, that there has been so much of chaos and conflict in our modern concept of the college and its functions and place. A correct analysis of the col- lege itself and of its constituent parts ought greatly to simplify these problems and point the way to a remedy. Otherwise, let us candidly confess that the analysis it- self is probably at fault and that our argument is vain. It is easy to apply this test. Differences and disputes largely result because men argue from differing premises, not clearly thought out; but it is strange that this should be strikingly so in our colleges of to-day; that they, which claim the name of institutions of higher learning, should not have care- 146 Dominant Position oj Student Life Department 147 fully gathered, arranged and analyzed the facts about themselves financial, executive, pedagogical, student life and administrative and that, with these common premises agreed upon, all interested in the college prob- lems should not also have agreed pretty well upon the remedy and line of action. Let us, then, again and further consider the quasi col- lege state and its constituent parts, to see if we can for- mulate and agree upon some premises on which to base our future course. All will agree that an ideal state should have good written laws, honestly and fairly enforced; and an in- telligent and upright body of citizens, who, under an enlightened public sentiment, maintain a high ideal in their political and other relations to the commonwealth, and as well in their business and community lives and in their homes; and further, that any state must be pro tanto a failure where the laws are poor or poorly en- forced; or where the political, community or business lives of a majority of the citizens are on a low level; or where the homes are uncultivated and debasing in their general influence. An upright judge can give an im- partial trial and inflict merited punishment after con- viction, but not much else. It is not his duty to detect crimes, or to apprehend the criminal or to render the verdict. Notwithstanding all his efforts, justice may fail because the laws are faulty, or because public senti- ment shields the criminal, or even aids in his defense or forces his pardon after conviction. The law, the citi- zens, the home, and the enfolding public and private sentiment which ennobles each of these, are each and 148 The Reorganization of Our Colleges all of them essential to the perfect commonwealth, and anything short of this makes it imperfect as a whole, no matter how perfect any one department or plane may be. So a man cannot be a complete and efficient citi- zen unless he fulfills all the obligations which he owes under the written law of the state, and in his general political or civic relations, and under the unwritten law and comity of his community, business or profession, and in his home. No matter how perfect he may be in any one of these planes of his life, he is one-sided and in- complete if he unnecessarily fails in the others. Our colleges have failed to agree as to their ideals be- cause they have not adequately appreciated that they, too, are pro tanto unsuccessful if they do not do their full duty to each student citizen; if they do not, so far as possible, within the limitations of a four years' course, set him forward on his road to become a well- rounded man, trained to do clean and clear intellectual work, whatever his vocation; but also able and willing to take his part in the struggle for the highest and best in the political, professional or business life of any com- munity of which he may become a member; and as capable of becoming the head of a family which shall in the end add to the citizen wealth of the common- wealth. Here, too, is the real duty of the college to the state : not merely to turn out strong and fully developed scholars, but wholesome citizens who shall be well-de- veloped students and thinkers, high-minded business or professional men, fathers of ideal homes, and able to lead in political, civic or social affairs. Some of these objects are before each of our colleges, or before some Dominant Position o] Student Lije Department 149 men in every college, but it may be questioned whether any institution has had them all so clearly before it that it has thoroughly appreciated the true relative functions of the instructional department and of the college com- munity and home life, in the education and training of the future citizen, which, for four years, has been placed by the commonwealth in the keeping of the college. Hence, for reorganization purposes, we may classify our colleges, or the dominant influences within them, according to the predominance in each (a) of the peda- gogic, or (6) of the college community, or (c) of the col- lege home life forces. (a) We find one class of colleges or college forces which places an undue emphasis upon what they are pleased to call scholarship, but which may too often be merely rank, and a diploma under a vicious marking system, or mere intellectual acquisitiveness with no abil- ity to impart or use for the good of others, for it may be united with a poor physique, the habits of a recluse or crank, the shortsightedness of a bigot, the manners of a boor or a general inefficiency. The result may be an intellectual prodigy, but a practical failure from the standpoint of the state, the citizen, the business or pro- fessional man, and the family. There have been many such cases among those who have graduated in the first ten of their college class. In these instances the merely pedagogic or book-learning side of the course is liable to be overdeveloped; and the unthinking or prejudiced, seeing its manifold failures to produce efficient and all-around citizens, condemn the institutions where these ideals are followed too exclusively. Even Phi 150 The Reorganization of Our Colleges Beta Kappa honors may be so misused. Only recently I asked an unusually bright and capable student, at the end of his junior year, why he had not gotten into Phi Beta Kappa. He replied that he could easily have done so if, like many of his classmates, he had elected certain easy courses in which he could have taken high rank with no exertion; but that he planned to study law, and felt that he needed all the history and eco- nomics that he could get. By so doing he had gained much better preparation for his life's work but had lost in college rank, and evidently had acquired a contempt for the men who studied for rank rather than for worth. It is unfortunate that upon every college faculty there are some who apparently look upon college rank as synonymous with a college education, and who cannot understand that, in truth, the studying for rank in college may have blotted out, in many instances, any ideal of training for complete and efficient citizenship in the future. I am not in the least decrying so-called scholarship in colleges. On the contrary, I would have more and more and still more of it in the reorganized college, if it means the ability to think clearly and well. But I would not exalt the spurious article the marking system variety. The college course is not to make a man a scholar but to render him scholarly. True scholar- ship can come only in the graduate school, followed by years of independent work. The college course can only implant or nourish the seeds of scholarliness, the desire, ambition and ability to become a scholar. I would let true scholarliness count for its exact value in rounding out the character and efficiency of the Dominant Position of Student Life Department 151 future citizen. I would build it deep into the reor- ganized college that manhood, not marks wisdom, not knowledge efficiency and unselfishness, not a diploma and selfishness are what will count in the world's work of the individual in the years to come. I would gladly double the amount of solid intellectual work done by the average student, but at the same time I would make it perfectly plain to him that I was not aiming to raise his college rank but his future effectiveness and the aver- age student would respond most heartily. (b) Another class of colleges or the dominant in- fluences therein have placed an undue emphasis upon the college community life, chiefly as seen in intercol- legiate athletics. Admittedly,the results have been dis- astrous in many ways, and on every side we hear these results held up to prove that all intercollegiate athletics should be abolished. Yet these contests, and the training and coaching incident to them, may have their undoubted use in rounding out certain phases of the character of the future citizen which cannot be gotten from mere books or recitations. Such contests, rightly conducted, teach the student citizen loyalty, en- thusiasm, discipline, unselfishness, and the ability to or- ganize his fellows for a common purpose and to work with others for such a purpose. Everything which help- fully trains the student citizen in his college community life tends to make him a broader minded and more efficient citizen in after years when the commonwealth asks what important political and civic benefits it is to derive from the talents committed for four years to the control of the institution, as distinguished from 152 The Reorganization of Our Colleges the parents' home and the business world. Admittedly, in intercollegiate athletics the college community life has been too often overstimulated and overdeveloped, and the strictly studious side has been improperly dwarfed and neglected. But the enthusiasm of modern college reunions and commencements, and the vast sums of money which have flowed therefrom into the college coffers, have been largely the result of the inspiring college community life. Presidents and faculties have encouraged intercollegiate contests because thereby they have gotten hold of their own alumni and have brought into view the financial needs of the college. But they should have seen that if there was any chi- canery in their intercollegiate athletics, to that extent they unfitted their student citizens for clean citizenship and civic righteousness in future years. (c) But there is a third class of colleges in which an undue emphasis has been placed upon the college home life, and in which the social activities are apt to be over- stimulated so long as undue prominence is given to the college home. The fraternity and club have, or may have, their great and beneficent uses in rounding out the character of the future citizen. They can and often do furnish him with the polish and social culture which will give him great power for good in after years. They can or should train the personal traits and moral qual- ities which will go to make him the good son, husband, father and friend, and able to get on with his fellow- men, and which assuredly are not less important than mere intellectual vigor or intelligent citizenship. I have seen too often with my own eyes the splendid educa- Dominant Position oj Student Lije Department 153 tional effects of a good fraternity home to have any doubt as to its real power. But I have been impressed by the danger that such a home may make a man lazy rather than vicious, and that it must have some un- failing gauge upon the outside which will insure good intellectual results within the home, as well as the un- doubted social benefits which come from a good home either within or without the college. As there may be overdevotion to study or to athletics, so there may be overattention to the social functions and other distrac- tions of the college home. It is at this point that one weighty objection is made to the fraternities. They do like soft culture courses, and unlimited electives, and overstrenuous athletics, and many other unregulated parts oj the college tend to distract the attention of the institution and its students away from scholarliness and interfere with good peda- gogical work. But, as we shall see, the trouble is not with the fraternities nor peculiar to them. We are look- ing at the effect, and not at the cause, which lies far deeper and in the college organization. All these things are important elements in a college education adapted to modern conditions, and have their essential places there- in. But they have not been kept in their proper places nor within their proper spheres, and it will not be diffi- cult for us to see why this has been so. Therefore, let us watch carefully for the reasons why, in an institution devoted, like Alma Mater, to higher instruction, the best and the most necessary innovations and improve- ments have run amuck, and have wrought widespread demoralization, and great and irreparable loss of splen- 154 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges did citizen material, and unpardonable failure as a public servant. There must be such reasons! Hence we can never propose and carry out an adequate and successful reorganization until we can put our finger upon the exact point in the college economy where the evils have been wrought and the mistakes made, nor until we have plucked up courage to fight these evils in the right way at the right spot and no other ! We shall then perceive that the trouble has not been with these new elements of the college, but rather with the way in which these elements have been handled; that electives, and Germanization, and the new college-university, and intercollegiate athletics, and the fraternities, and scores of other things, are essentially right and necessary in the new college state although they were not in the older college based upon the home and that the trouble has been that, in all these cases, we have allowed the means to become the end, the servant to become the master; and that the pedagogical department has suffered cor- respondingly. I intend to show why this has been so, and what is to be the remedy. We shall, then, have made material progress toward the solution of our reorganization if we can substan- tially agree upon the following premises: that the col- lege annually receives a fresh crop of embryo citi- zens, breadwinners and home-makers, for whose training for citizenship it is directly responsible to the state, and whose future usefulness and development depend largely upon the true wisdom displayed during these four years by the college authorities; that this annual crop is a heterogeneous collection of all kinds and Dominant Position oj Student Lije Department 155 conditions, mental, moral, physical and financial, in all stages of life-growth, and each requiring individual treatment to counteract his weak points and substan- tially develop his strong ones; that this treatment must be applied in varying measure to the individual by the college in its coordinate and correlated instructional and student life departments; that each of these de- partments has its great and substantial functions at this period of the young man's life and growth, and that failure properly to use any of these functions may result in stunting his future usefulness as a citizen, bread- winner or home-maker; that these departments have differing values and possibilities in rounding out differ- ent students to complete manhood; that therefore each department must be maintained in a state of the highest efficiency to do its part for each citizen student; that this is the period when "the preparation for life" is about drawing to its close, and "life in earnest" is about to begin; and that many of the things which are to round out the character and efficiency of the future adult citizen are not pedagogical in their nature or are only remotely so. If we can agree upon these premises it will be not very difficult to classify and arrange most of the fail- ures and mistakes of our colleges, for they fall within the pedagogical, or the college community or the college home life departments, which have been running wild, without governor or fly wheel, and which can be brought back to their true relative positions and values only through an outside agency, the separate administrative department. 156 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges And what is true of the colleges tends to be even more true of the undergraduates. If the doctors cannot agree, much more will the patients be at sea. If the colleges themselves have not been able to study out the meaning and relative values of their own departments and functions, much more are the undergraduates and their parents likely to become confused in this regard. Hence we find the students also divided largely into three classes who respectively lay supreme importance upon the studious, the athletic or the social sides of the college state, and thereby lose sight of the true educa- tional symmetry and effectiveness of the course as a whole, but according to the individual needs of each student. Let us, then, get a clear conception of the objective of the college. Intellectual training is not its chief ob- ject, but rather citizenship and the training for splendid and fruitful work as a citizen in the broadest sense in which the word can be used. The agencies by which this true and well-rounded citizenship is to be devel- oped are intellectual training and the college commun- ity and home lives. Of these, intellectual training is usually, but not always, the chief agency of the college in fulfilling its chief object the promotion of citizen- ship. But the most learned pedant may fall far short of the perfection of citizenship which his college course might have wrought in him, and far short of the attain- ments in this regard of the men of lowest rank in his class, or of an unlearned and unlettered noncollege fellow -citizen. If mere bookishness rather than citizenship be the Dominant Position of Student Life Department 157 chief thing, then let our boys be educated at home under tutors. Often this will cost less and the young men will have a greater and deeper book knowledge. But it will be at the expense of most that is best and most character-building, formative and rewarding in these four years. If, then, the individual student cannot af- ford to forego the ninety per cent of the student life of these four years, it is self-evident that more, much more, intelligent and sympathetic thought and effort must be spent upon this ninety per cent by the elders of all classes, and chiefly by those who are not the pedagogues, and especially by the alumni and parents. Ten instructors, working in relays, could not do the home work for its members which a good fraternity home does. But this very power for good warns us that we must guard against a like inherent power for evil. Let us not forget, then, that citizenship is the great object of the college; and let us be careful not to con- fuse this object and the agencies through which this is to be worked out. Especially let us make this fun- damental difference plain to all concerned in the college faculty and students, trustees and alumni, parents and preparatory-school agencies. From this point of view the intellectual training and the college commun- ity and home lives take on new meanings as mere agencies and fall naturally into their proper places in the college reorganization plan. While we may admit that in the majority of cases the scholastic is the most important function of the col- lege, we must not overlook the fact that the effects of 158 The Reorganization of Our Colleges the college community and home lives may be quite as essential in making the clean and cultured problem solver, citizen and home-maker especially as almost fifty per cent of our college undergraduates now go into business as their life work. This fact must not be ignored when we weigh the relative ultimate value to the average student of the pedagogic and student life factors of his college course. Nor must we overlook the fact that in the eyes of a large part of our college constituency the students and their parents the stu- dent life is relatively the most important factor, as it is in the eyes of the authorities of too many of our colleges. Admittedly, a considerable proportion of the students care most for the athletic and social elements of their course. But it is also as true that many parents have very little care for the scholastic side, but look upon the course as chiefly important because it tends to fit their children for eminence and success in business and political or social life. This is natural when we con- sider how little real value true scholastic improvement frequently has under the present college system, which too often subordinates true scholarliness and learning to athletics and social functions. It is vitally important to the instructional department to make plain the value of scholarship in the life of the future citizen. Else in too many cases the student life factors will continue to occupy, relatively, a too impor- tant position in the minds of parents and students. " For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Much more, what is an undergraduate profited if he shall gain a sixty per cent Dominant Position oj Student Life Department 159 marking system college diploma and lose the whole world of his future as a forceful citizen and clean man and true parent? Tens of thousands of such diplomas have been gotten in the college pedagogic department, and at the same time as many splendid futures have been lost to the state, the community and the family in the college community or the college home. In many many instances which was the greater, the ten per cent or the ninety? If you would know the true answer, study the college from the standpoint of the under- graduate and his future, and the college education from within the portals of the college home, for therein you will find the man himself; and the college sheepskin will appear at its true value in life training and life work. We have shown how little pedagogy has to do, under present conditions, with the student life factors of the college course; nay, rather, how pedagogy and the stu- dent life are often at odds and pulling in different di- rections. Hence it follows that some new force must be introduced into our college economy which shall have the distinct power and duty to analyze and set forth the real state of affairs, and to lay out and enforce a policy broad enough to cover, in the college organization, the rights, duties and privileges of the commonwealth, the institution, the faculty, the students collectively and individually, the parents, the fraternities, and all other persons or interests in any way concerned in the won- derful cosmos and congeries now known as a college or university. This new force must be independent of any of the other departments over which it must exercise supervision, yet with which it must work in the closest 160 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges sympathy. To do its most effective work it must be self -centered and independent, and must be avowedly organized and recognized upon that plan. Otherwise it entirely loses its greatest source of power and efficiency. It is with this in view that we approach the subject of administration as it is now known and practiced in the business world, and the separate department of adminis- tration which must be organized and developed within our colleges if we are to get adequate results from our enormous investments therein, past and present, of time, money and men. But it is proper to point out here one great evil and wrong which has grown out of this failure to see whither the college was drifting. Boys used to go to college at twelve to fifteen, 1 but now it is considered unwise and unsafe to trust a boy at college before he is at least eighteen. Candid principals of high schools admit that many boys might easily be prepared to enter at sixteen or seventeen, but that they are kept marking time till they are old enough to be likely to " resist the tempta- tions of a college life." But, as we have seen, these are solely the temptations of the college community and home lives. Hence it is evident that the failure of the colleges to study and control the student life depart- ment has been the very place where the colleges have lost the confidence of the parents, the secondary-school teachers and the world in general; and that this loss of confidence is putting a handicap of one or two years upon many of our future citizens who think that they must take a college course a handicap which does not "Individual Training in Our Colleges," Chap. III. Dominant Position o] Student Life Department 161 exist in the case of the young men who are considered quite fit to enter business or the trades at sixteen and that this is one of the many points at which these public corporations fail to do their full duty as servants of the state. "College temptations," then, constitute an ele- ment in the life of the schoolboy, the undergraduate and the future citizen, which must be thoughtfully and can- didly considered in any college reorganization. But we must not overlook the fact that the present conditions have arisen and become regnant under the so-called pedagogic control of our colleges. We must look to see if we cannot find some new agency or department which can succeed where college pedagogy has failed so sig- nally. An examination of Who's Who in America shows that a very large proportion of our real leaders are college- bred men and that a college education still implies leadership. It makes no matter whether, with the im- provement of the high schools, this proportion will con- tinue to be as great in favor of the college-bred men. The fact remains that, more than ever before, the high-school boy studies and imitates the college under- graduate and his methods, and that in this sense the college has a far greater and increasingly greater influence over the youth of our land. The high-school boy is not particularly interested in the pedagogic side of the college but in the student life, and especially in the college community life as exemplified in inter- collegiate athletics, and to a less degree in the college home life as exemplified in the fraternities. The re- flex action of the college and of the college training out- 1 62 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges side of the class room is therefore stronger than ever before upon the high-school boy, whether or not he is going to college. The thousands of young alumni yearly discharged into the body politic may too often be failures in the eyes of the elders but are quite as often demigods in the eyes of the lads. Neither elders nor lads have now any criterion by which they can surely judge the effects of the instructional department of the college upon the individual, but anyone can note the effects of the student life department. Hence it is this latter department which more and more becomes the standard by which the college is judged, and hence it is to be more carefully studied, watched and guarded by the college itself and all those interested in the college or its undergraduates. Having thus studied the evils which have grown up in the colleges, and fixed their exact location therein, let us turn our attention to the modern science of business administration, and see what it is and what it has ac- complished; and, further, whether the college mistakes and failures of the present and of the recent past have not been caused principally by the failure to develop a modern, distinct and coordinate administrative depart- ment able to seek out and cope with the stupendous and complicated social and educational problems of the huge institutions of higher learning of to-day, which lie quite outside the realm of pure pedagogy. PART III THE SEPARATE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT CHAPTER XIII THE SCIENCE OF ADMINISTRATION AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT As music is not a matter of strings or keys or instru- ments, and as true oratory does not depend upon the language or color of the orator, so administration is not a matter of forms or method. In its higher sense, it is an atmosphere, an enfolding and life-giving power, which, consciously and unconsciously, acts upon and sways everyone within its field of action, and nerves him to do the best that is in him for the common cause. Under such an enthusiastic consensus, a required form is not a fetter, nor a prescribed method a manacle, but rather the best instrument so far devised for accom- plishing a common and desirable end, at a particular time and place. Since the use of that very instru- ment may elevate our ideals and ideas, it may itself thereby become obsolete and unfitted to accomplish the higher ends to which it has shown us the way; and hence as we use it, we must be seeking for and substituting new methods and instruments better fitted for the higher ends. Administration at its inception is the dominating personality of an individual rising above his fellows and, as master workman or proprietor, directly super- 165 1 66 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges intending and improving their joint work for the good of the common whole and of the separate parts. But as the organization grows larger, two needs develop. First, that the spirit of the chief organizer, rather than his personality, shall be disseminated through the whole, and thus reach the individual laborer or pro- ducer; for there are greater ends than mere organiza- tion and administration demanded of the chief, and it is important that his strength be conserved for these higher ends. Hence a system must be substituted for his personality, which henceforth must act indirectly and not directly, yet even more powerfully than before, for it has a larger number to affect. His personal in- fluence must be directly exerted upon a few and passed on from them to others. Second, there must be found a way in which this personal force may become a per- manent force, acting as truly and as surely as ever, notwithstanding a temporary or permanent absence of the initial personality. Hence the order of develop- ment of administration is first, the forceful individual; second, the substituted system ; and finally, out of many such systems, considered in the light of experiments, a well-defined and widely used science. Administration, then, has become a science, and the personal agents through whom it has been worked out and through whom it works, have become experts and specialists, in the same sense as the doctors, lawyers, divines, teachers or other human exponents of any other well-developed science. New problems constantly arise in this new science, as in any other, both in its older fields and in the newer The Science oj Administration 167 ones to which it must be applied. But this does not re- quire that the practical workers in these new fields must learn administration so that they shall be able to apply it within the field with which they are admittedly better acquainted than anyone else. A new cost system in a factory does not imply that the skilled mechanics shall leave their tools to put that system into effect. When the sleeping sickness of Africa was to be met and con- quered, it was not necessary or desirable to fetch a native African, thoroughly acquainted with jungle con- ditions, and educate him as a physician that he might go back and study this local disease. On the contrary, the great investigator and discoverer of germ diseases was sent to Africa that his experience in allied fields might be brought to bear upon local conditions. If new problems arise in any particular line of business, it is not necessary to educate, from among the practical experts of that business, men who shall become admin- istrators, so that they may study these new administra- tive problems. On the contrary, we seek out the most experienced administrator in other lines, that his wide experience may give him a broader view of problems of whose details he may have had no previous knowledge or experience. The science of administration has its well-defined rules and principles, and its well-trained experts and specialists capable of coping with any ad- ministrative problem, new or old, and wherever it may arise. Thus we perceive that administration is, in its essence, distinct from the rest of the business, and, in that sense, is a new graft upon the old stem, which, indeed, introduces new elements which soon become so 1 68 The Reorganization of Our Colleges much a part of the tree that they can be distinguished only by their fruit, which may be the most valuable which the tree bears. Here is where the colleges make their great error. They mistake questions which are administrative in their nature for pedagogical questions, and then imagine that if new problems of administration arise within their walls, their pedagogical experts must master and solve these questions. On the contrary, they should bring in administrative experts of wide experience to solve the administrative problems which necessarily must be simple and, in the main, must arise from the increased number of students, professors and courses, and the intricacy and hurly-burly of modern educational and social conditions. No other business or profession as- sumes that it is self-sufficient in everything, and that it does not need outside administrative experts; but the college authorities take it for granted that their business is different from any other, and that they are in a class by themselves and hence must handle their own ad- ministrative problems. They erroneously assume that because they deal mostly with human factors their prob- lems are different from and, by their very nature, far more difficult than those presented in other fields. On the contrary, it is the human factor which is the most troublesome in every business affair. The administra- tive problems of the college should be, and are, far simpler than those of a great business; first, because they arise in one spot and are not scattered over wide areas in the hands of underlings; second, because they arise among and deal with our highest class of educated, The Science 0} Administration 169 ambitious young men, and not among a crowd of for- eigners unacquainted with our language, customs or traditions; and, third, because the authorities have con- trol over the community and home life of the students, and so in one sense still reserve the right to act in loco parentis. The ill success is due, not to the inherent difficulty of the problems, but to the fact that the inter- ests involved the education of our future problem solvers are so important that any failure whatever therein is noticeable and blamable. Possibly my meaning can be made clearer by an actual example from the business world. The making of fine cigars is largely a matter of the manual skill of the in- dividual workman, although the cheaper brands may be made, more or less satisfactorily, by machinery. Hence when a company recently took over a large part of the cigar trade it was confronted, not so much with new problems of manufacture, as with new problems of ad- ministration. Undoubtedly, .factory methods had to be systematized and improved, but even this was largely a matter of administration. The same hands continued to make the cigars and especially the finer grades in about the old way and with about the former skill. The really important questions arose in connection with ad- ditional capital and with the handling and selling of the goods after they were manufactured, and these problems were practically administrative and executive in their nature. But we must carefully distinguish between manu- facturing and manufacturing methods, and between sell- ing and selling methods. A man may be a fine cigar 1 70 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges maker but know nothing about factory methods, while a good factory superintendent may not be a skilled work- man. Or a man may be a fine salesman, yet know nothing about the great sales plans of his employers, who, in turn, might make poor salesmen. Under this huge expansion in the cigar business, the manufacturing needed merely extension along lines already well under- stood in cigar-making; but the selling end required the application to the cigar trade, for the first time upon a very extensive scale, of administrative methods already well known in other lines of business, but adapted to new needs, and united with new methods evolved to meet problems which arose first in connection with this new business venture. This will illustrate one cause of the poor results during the recent years of great expansion in our colleges. We must clearly realize the difference between instruction and pedagogical methods or the science of pedagogy; and between college pedagogy and college administra- tion. College teaching, as such, is still the action of one mind upon another. It is not a system or science. One person may be an effective teacher, yet know nothing about the science of pedagogy ; another may be expert in the science and yet be a failure in actual teaching. Teaching is productive in its nature, but teaching meth- ods are largely administrative. The essential elements of good and fructifying teaching have not changed be- cause the older boarding-school college, drawing its pupils from private teachers, has been evolved into a college state or public servant, based upon a public- school system, and with greatly increased administrative The Science oj Administration 171 problems. The great teachers of the olden times would find their level to-day if they were not overwhelmed by poor administrative methods! The Germanization of our colleges, the elective system, intercollegiate athletics, the fraternities and many other disturbing elements of the modern college state, training for citizenship in all its planes, have not changed the es- sential elements of effective college teaching, but have f merely introduced administrative problems, pedagogical f in their nature, which must be met by the use of well- known administrative methods, adapted to college condi- tions, and supplemented by new methods evolved to meet administrative problems which arise for the first time in this new field. The college teacher is still its great producer. It was the duty of the college administration to insure that neither Germanization, nor electives, nor athletics, nor fraternities, nor anything else should have interfered with the true productiveness of the college teacher. But it failed because it gave attention to trying to improve its manufacture, but not its manufacturing or administra- tive or executive methods. It set about to improve its mechanics, but neglected to improve the conditions under which they worked, and largely failed to handle properly the goods which they turned out. Our re- organization must insure that henceforth administration shall make all these innovations each valuable in its proper plane work together to improve the college teacher and his product. The difficulties of college administration will not be great if we do not persist in approaching them from the 172 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges mistaken standpoint of present college sentiment and methods, which are based upon conditions which have largely passed away. The college authorities fail to appreciate that admin- istration is to-day as much a science as pedagogy, and in many senses a far greater and more exact science, and quite as well worthy to be taught in college as are many other courses now in the curriculum, and as much en- titled to a separate and honorable place in the college establishment as is the treasurer's office, which is ad- ministrative in its nature. Any system must be indeed scientific which can pro- duce uniform, satisfactory and maximum results in huge corporations like the United States Steel Corporation or the Standard Oil Company, which employ hundreds of thousands of men, in all parts of the world, in the most diverse industries and professions, and with hundreds of millions of capital. Either of these great corporations has an invested capital equal to that of all our institu- tions of higher learning, and directly or indirectly em- ploys as many men as there are students within all of our 850 universities, colleges and technical schools. The annual income of the United States Steel Corpora- tion exceeds the capital and plant which our 850 insti- tutions of higher learning have been able to accumulate in 270 years, and is fifteen times as large as their com- bined annual income; yet in one sense its administra- tive system is only a few years old. Moreover, this system is put to a proportionately greater test because its $600,000,000 of yearly business, under one admin- istration, is widely scattered, and not distributed among The Science 0} Administration 173 850 small and locally entire plants, each with unim- portant administrative problems, as is the case with our colleges. Assuredly if the science of modern adminis- tration can, without much difficulty and almost iner- rantly, dominate and systematize such divergent yet huge forces and powers, all working toward common ends, it will not prove unable to solve the compara- tively paltry problems of a college or university with a few hundreds or thousands of students and a few millions of capital and plant, located in a single town and around a single campus. We frequently hear that some one connected with the educational part of a college is a fine administrator. If we inquire closely we shall find that he indeed has an instinct for administration, but that, instead of being put at the head of a separate department, he is pitted against the inertia of the college ideals and traditions. The result is a slight movement of the mass and the exhaustion of the daring innovator, whose efforts are met with cries of " philistinism," "materialism," "red tape," "you are making a factory, a mill, of the college. Let us have at least one spot free from this business, machine spirit." In other words, in a college a good administrator is too often at a heavy discount and is voted a nuisance; while in business he is at a great pre- mium and called a prize. In business affairs the administrative department is accepted as something to be proud of, as an ally, as in- dispensable, and therefore to be fostered. Hence it is not choked off but championed, and every improve- ment in it is regarded as a common triumph, for it 174 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges makes the work of each individual more effective and hence more rewarding. In a well-organized business concern, the push of the mass is against tolerating a poor administrative de- partment in whole or in part, and the chief men are ever working for a better administrative atmosphere, for they know that therein lies their own salvation. On the contrary, in our best organized colleges, the push of the mass is often against true administration if there is anyone daring enough to propose some administra- tive innovations and the chief men of the faculty are often the chief sinners in this regard. This is conclu- sively proved by the fact that up to the present time, so far as I can ascertain, no institution has organized its administrative features into a separate and coordinate department, with corresponding rights and powers for the general and individual good. It is self-evident that until such a department is formed and honestly and adequately handled, administration can never have a fair test in our colleges. In many faculties there is too much slurring of the other departments or teachers, very much as in the older schools of medicine, which were all measurably wrong, but each unable to see anything good in the others. Yet the newer medicine is principally made up of the things most violently opposed and denounced in the near past, and the things most tenaciously fought for by each school in the past are those which it now most vehemently disowns. A few heart-to-heart talks with members of a college faculty soon reveal this con- dition to a business man. There can never be any true The Science of Administration 175 administration in our colleges until it is in itself a desideratum for which all will work, and if necessary gladly sacrifice something; nor until it is no longer re- garded by some influential professors as a devilment of those ungodly and uneasy souls who " have no notion of scholarship or its needs"; or, as one old professor de- lighted to phrase it, of " Christianity and culture." We shall see that because of modern conditions a separate administrative department in our huge institutions is the only method through which we can ever hope to re- store in many of them anything like Christianity and culture; or, in other words, a pure college atmosphere and clean college homes, making for better intellectual conditions and higher scholarliness. Yet administration, no matter how elaborately or- ganized, which lacks the inspiring, cooperating genius is dead and useless. "It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing." And until the spirit has made it alive, and put every part of the college behind it, there can never be true administration in our col- leges in the sense in which it quickens every part of a business concern. As we proceed we shall discover some of the ways in which the spirit of true adminis- tration has not only quickened but revolutionized our modern business world. So long, then, as we stick to the notion that, in the colleges, administration must remain a mere adjunct to the whims of the pedagogical department, we cannot, from the very nature of the case, expect to develop an adequate, coordinate and up-to-date administrative de- partment. The very statement of this case should con- 176 The Reorganization of Our Colleges vince us of its correctness. But we shall soon have its truth established by our study of the science of admin- istration as it has gradually grown up in all large affairs except in the colleges; and thereby the shortsightedness of the college policy of chaining administration to the department of instruction will be demonstrated. This point is well covered in the following letter from a dean of a Western university. Notice how the troubles spoken of would be minimized by a separate depart- ment of administration. "The faults which you mark in Eastern institutions are even more pronounced in some ways among our Western colleges. Their extreme youth, unprecedented growth, and more limited funds have combined to increase the difficul- ties of an administrative type. The college professor has not only to attend to his teaching but to lay, in a year, foun- dations as extensive as those which the older institutions of the East have been a half century or more in construct- ing. The faculty creates committees to organize this work and that; for the Western institution is jealous that it shall afford all the opportunities of the older universities. The committee is urged to investigate thoroughly and to organ- ize along the most successful lines. The faculty applies personal and official pressure, with the result that the in- dividual members of the committee spend an entirely un- necessary amount of time in securing data and attempting to build up a system, for the execution of which there is no sufficient provision. Consequently, faculty members are as- signed to further duties in carrying out the plan of organi- zation, and the administrative burden, like the Old Man of the Sea, only winds itself tighter about the neck of the unfortunate pedagogue. "If your suggested revision is needed anywhere in the world it is urgently demanded here in the West. Our large classes and small faculties too much to do and too little to do with have confined administrative expenditures to the minimum possible limit. A few cheap men, without any The Science oj Administration 177 reasonable possibility of carrying out the interests entrusted to them, constitute the entire administrative force. Yet the teachers begrudge even the small amount of money which goes to maintain this department. They often find the pur- chases made by a purchasing agent more expensive than those previously made under their own management, or at least less effective, since they are supplied with poor material or cheap apparatus that will not answer the purpose for which it was intended and thus becomes promptly an entire loss to the institution. I might expand ad lib on this topic." As is here shown, and as we shall frequently see, college administration involves, more and more, ques- tions which are distinctly extrapedagogical. Hence any system which is under the control of the pedagogical branch is inherently weak and upon a wrong basis. Administration should be independent of the peda- gogical department and directly answerable to the ex- ecutive, who in his turn is directly responsible for in- suring that the institution gives a training for efficient citizenship rather than merely for a diploma, as a pseudonym for scholarliness. But, again and again, let us repeat that forms and methods are not administration any more than the level and compass are engineering. All these things are but the tools and implements of the underlying science. Administration, so called, may be essentially false and harmful in the same sense that law may be bad or theology false, possibly because they have be- come antiquated and inapplicable to modem conditions; or as a medicine may be efficacious when applied exter- nally which would be poison if taken internally; or as a drug may be safely put into the stomach which would cause blindness if put into the eye. In the science of 178 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges administration, as in all others, a little knowledge is dangerous. And right here some of our colleges have grievously and frequently erred. They have called in accountants and others, and under their advice have in- stalled some system of forms and blanks taken from a bank or store, and have called this administration; and when the ill-advised experiment has failed, as it was bound to, they have condemned all business adminis- tration as inherently inapplicable to college affairs. As well might a farsighted man put on nearsighted glasses, or a slightly nearsighted man put on powerful glasses, and condemn all the work of the optician. Indeed, ad- ministration is very like the science of the optician in that it is largely a matter of fine adjustment. As the average eye can usually do better with no glasses than it can with those which are not properly adjusted to it, so a college may be better off with substantially no ad- ministration than with a method not at all adjusted to its peculiar wants and conditions. Every science, if wrongly understood and applied, is dangerously capable of doing harm. The trouble with our colleges has been that they have not realized that administration was a science, and to be studied and ap- plied as such; and that a science presupposes that its problems have been thoroughly studied and diagnosed before a scientific solution can be proposed. Ill-ad- vised administration in a college may have the most disastrous results, but this is no reason for condemning all administration, or for refusing to understand that college affairs require a modern administrative system and department especially adapted to their needs, based The Science oj Administration 179 upon the underlying principles of the science, yet not necessarily following strictly any particular forms or methods theretofore used in other forms of business. College administration presents a new field and must be studied as such. As we have developed railroad ad- ministration, and factory practice, and department-store methods, and banking principles, so we must evolve college administration and the college administrative de- partment, and they closely approximate to good factory practice. There are two paramount objects which true admin- istration accomplishes, one affirmative and the other negative. In the first place, it collates and compares the results of its own work and of the work of others over which it presides, and thus ascertains the true value of each particular of these results, and therefore is able to winnow the chaff from the wheat. But, secondly, and quite as important, it makes a record of what has been done and how, which renders it unnecessary to keep doing over and over again the pioneer work which is primitive and unrewarding. Thus it is kept from slip- ping backward, and maintains any heights to which it has once attained ; and at the same time has a chart by which to steer its future course. As has been shown al- ready, and as we shall see more clearly hereafter, the present college administrative methods do not produce clear and comprehensive records on a wide and uni- form plan, nor collect and compare them in a broad and scientific way. Hence the present system is primi- tive, with its best minds working over and over, in a desultory way, upon the same primary administrative i8o The Reorganization o) Our Colleges problems, instead of having these so simplified that a clerk, at ten dollars a week, could attend to them. In business, important accounting and other administra- tive problems which were worked out by geniuses within the past twenty-five years are now relegated to mere clerks. But the best administrative minds in our col- leges are still working over tables and petty details which could and should be attended to more satisfac- torily by ordinary assistants. Let us, then, more care- fully examine administrative methods and problems as they have been developed and treated in the colleges and in business affairs. We shall thus discover whether it will not be essential to a successful reorganization of our colleges to apply modern administrative methods, through a modern and separate administrative depart- ment, to many of the college problems which under present methods, and treated as pedagogical rather than administrative, seem almost unsolvable. CHAPTER XIV ADMINISTRATION, DISCIPLINE AND ORDER IN THE EARLIER COLLEGES THERE were no questions of administration worth mentioning in the very small boarding-school college of the ecclesiastical period, with its few score of pupils housed and reciting in one or two buildings; any more than in its contemporaneous colonial shop or store, with its one or two journeymen or clerks. So there were few administrative problems when a band of neighboring frontiersmen gathered to fight the Indians, and fur- nished their own weapons, accoutrements and pro- visions; or in the older ship yard, with twenty or thirty men who could, nevertheless, in a few months turn out the highest class of clipper ship then known to the world. Teaching is largely the direct impress of one mind upon another, and this is most easily and surely ob- tained where the contact between these minds is con- tinued, constant and direct. This is truest in youth, and less so as the recipient mind becomes more thor- oughly trained and better able to think clearly for itself. Thus in a small secondary school, where the teacher and the pupil are, as it were, caged together, day after day, and year after year, the contact is direct and the results definite. The opposite is found in the college class, and especially in the college lecture course, with occasionally, 181 1 82 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges as in Harvard, 400 men in the course, 1 some of whom cannot even hear the lecturer. In such cases, and es- pecially where the instructors are frequently changed, the personal contact must often be very slight. The fundamental relation of the effective teacher to his pupil is substantially the same in all colleges. The great teacher is bound to find his place and his pupils. The variable factors, which affect the work of the ordin- ary or average or inexperienced instructor in our col- leges, are to be found in the administration, and in the atmosphere in which the student must work, that is, in the student life department. Upon the college admin- istrative department must fall the burden of making sure that in our modern huge institutions there is such a constant and close contact between teacher and taught as shall give the same kind of results as in the earlier and simpler days. Compare the administrative problems of a modern university with those of Dartmouth under her first president: " In this condition Wheelock was at once the man of des- tiny and of service. All functions were performed by him. He was the universal executive scholastic, civil, educational, domestic. In one of the college buildings was kept a store. Upon him the care of it fell. He was the farmer, the miller, and the lumberman at the saw-mill. The commons was a branch of his family kitchen; of it he was steward. He was treasurer, professor of divinity, and pastor of the church. He essentially was the Board of Trustees and the faculty. If any student was to be reprimanded, he was the one to deal the blow; if the gates of the college property were out of order, he was the one to mend them; and if the pigs did 1 "Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 177, 404. Administration in the Earlier Colleges 183 damage to the neighbors, he was the one to put the pigs back in their pen, to settle damages, and to pour balm on the injured feelings. These and similar works, with neces- sary changes of emphasis, were the works of Wheelock until his death in 1779." l Nor must we confuse administration with discipline. In the earlier college the discipline was recognized as part of the student life and applied as such, and it still belongs in that department, and not to the pedagogical department. In a properly conducted college, disci- pline should be about as frequent as it is in well-con- ducted church or factory and not much more so. There is no reason why the young men themselves, and the agencies affecting them in their college life and college home, should not do away with questions of dis- cipline or solve the few cases that may arise. After making due allowance for modern social changes, and for the different conditions which now surround the students, the college administrative prob- lems are those which come from increase in numbers in students, courses and faculty, and of the professions or callings of our graduates, and from the evolution of the college school into the college state. The colleges have tried to fit too many men for too many callings in too short a time, considering the amount of stuffing and smattering now falsely called a liberal education. We cannot agree even yet upon what the college is, nor what its courses should be, nor how they should be taught; nor what are the functions, educationally, of the college community life and home life; nor the true interrelations i "Highpr Education in America," by Charles F. Thwing, p. 141. 184 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges and interdependence of the various departments of the college; nor upon scores of other fundamental things, administrative and not pedagogical in their nature, upon which we must substantially agree if we are to make true progress toward an effective reorganization. We have landed in topsy-turvydom, and our scrap- heap education has left us with an immense college waste heap, which we have never analyzed or studied through a proper administrative department and in a modern way or else our mistakes would long ago have been set baldly before us, and greatly lessened in num- ber and importance because we knew what caused them, and our best administrative minds could have gone on to something higher and more worthy of their caliber. Hence we must study what our business concerns are doing and have done, so that we may know what our colleges might and should have done under much more favorable circumstances and with much more intelligent agents. Thus we can discover what the colleges ought to do in the future. CHAPTER XV HOW SHALL WE REORGANIZE THE COLLEGE? THE NEW PRIMARY UNIT To one experienced in business reorganizations, the answer to this question seems simple enough as to the principle to be followed, while admittedly the applica- tion of that principle must be difficult. But if the principle upon which we are to proceed can be estab- lished, its application is only a matter of time and work, and usually, as in the adoption of the United States con- stitution, of compromises. The first essential of a successful reorganization is an analysis of the business itself and of its strong and weak points, and thereafter of the factors which led to the failure, and thus to the need of reorganization. Ample provision must then be made against the baleful in- fluence of these factors in the future. Carrying out this method, we find that, from the very outset, there must be an entire change of the point from which we shall view the college plant, using this word "plant" in a very broad sense, rather than in the narrow sense, as applying only to real estate and machinery. We should make the teacher, not the pupil, the unit of primary consideration and of determining the nature and kind of output. As water of itself can rise no higher than its source, so in this sense the pupil cannot rise above 185 1 86 The Reorganization of Our Colleges his teacher. In another sense, the pupil can and often does rise above his teacher, and this is the joy of all inspiring and virile instructors. But usually it is the inspiration of the teacher and his methods and train- ing which enables the pupil to surpass his instructor. Hence we should consider first the efficiency of the latter, and improve this as being the true source of the pupiPs scholarliness and subsequent scholarship. In other words, the college must now learn to con- sider, as its primary unit, the capacity of its plant- that is, of its teaching force, individually and collec- tively, in connection with its libraries, laboratories, recitation rooms and other material equipment. Under this plan each instructor would be considered and rated, by the coordinate and coequal administrative depart- ment, as a part of the college plant (a) principally and primarily as to the amount of time which he must have to himself to conserve and develop to the utmost, and keep in thorough repair and highest working order, his intellectual and teaching powers, so that he may be capable of the best possible work for the students and the institution; (b) how much time in addition he can, to the greatest advantage, spend upon teaching; and (c) how many students he can teach most efficiently within the time allotted to teaching. But this is expressing a layman's opinion upon pedagogical matters, and so may properly be reenforced by expert opinion. Dr. James H. Canfield says: "There is no profession in which a man goes stale more quickly or more easily than in teaching. It requires rather unusual independence of outlook to see and believe that The New Primary Unit 187 positive teaching power is the one thing needful, the one imperative demand, and in the end must be the one standard by which recognition and advancement are secured. And it requires conscientious class-room work, quickened and enlightened by continued efforts for self-improvement, to keep a man fresh and effective as a teacher." At this point we should make sure that our frequent allusions to business methods and factory practice do not mislead us. In business it is the net result, the ultimate success, the finished product, however diverse, which are held constantly in view. In one establish- ment the labors of thousands of men may be concentrated for years upon the construction of a Lusitania, which shall surpass in size any ship theretofore built and prove the applicability of the turbine engine upon the largest scale. In another establishment the same number of men may be employed in turning out millions of machine- made products of a standard type. But to insure in either case the best net results for the time and labor ex- pended, there must be the best factory methods whether the final product is to be a Lusitania, or 5,000 automo- biles or 10,000,000 shovels or spades. But the great danger is that our colleges, because of their size and poor factory practice, will turn out large quantities of factory- made goods instead of a smaller number of well-trained individuals. There is too much tendency to be satis- fied if fifty or sixty per cent of the entering class are sent forth at the end of four years as holders of low-grade and meaningless diplomas, and too little determination that the institution shall produce individuals trained to their utmost for the highest future service as citizens. It is because the reorganized colleges should get the best 1 88 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges possible results out of each individual that I advocate the adoption of business methods and factory practice in the form of a new college administrative department. Only thus can the best results be gotten out of the work of the instructors of whatever grade. In this new view of our teaching force as our primary unit we are merely following good factory practice. A manufacturer or business man carefully considers and conserves his plant. He first asks, " How can I gather together the most modern and improved machinery and keep it in the highest state of efficiency? " and next, "How much first-class work can I get out of it?" That is to say, he regards as of primary importance his plant and capital, which are the chief factors which limit his ability to turn out first-class product, and then proceeds to run this plant to the utmost of its economi- cal production; but he always keeps in full view the con- dition and safe capacity of his plant. It is a cardinal principle that, at any cost, machinery must be kept in first-class order and repair; for here "a stitch in time saves nine," both in the ultimate cost of repairs and in impaired product. It is the rankest folly to allow a plant to run down or be overworked; or to fail to replace out-of-date or useless machinery with new; or, as one business and college friend suggests, " a scrap heap for the second-class machinery is one of the economies of a first-class factory." The prime importance which manufacturers attach to maintaining and repairing their plant and machinery can be seen in their annual reports. The New Primary Unit 189 For example, during the year ending December 31, 1906, the United States Steel Corporation expended for main- tenance, renewals and extraordinary re- placement, the sum of $48,333,089.37 which in this particular was an increase of twenty-nine per cent over the expen- ditures of the preceding year. After these and other deductions the company showed net earnings for 1906 of 156,624,273 . 18 out of which it further appropriated for sinking funds, depreciation and extin- guishment funds, and for construction 86,565,333.05 and for dividends on its common and preferred stock, about forty per cent as much, or 353857 2 4-oo In other words, the sums expended for maintenance, re- newals, replacements, depreciation, etc., were four times those paid out in dividends, and approximately one quarter of the total gross income. So also in railroading. The Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg earned in the year ending December 31, 1906, $46,036,806.22 as follows: From freight traffic 36,323,405 . 13 From passenger and express traffic, transportation of mails and all other mis- cellaneous sources 9,713,401 .09 $46,036,806.22 Yet out of these earnings the Railroad Company expended for the main- tenance of way and struc- tures, and for the main- tenance of equipment 14,007,632 .41 Or over thirty per cent of its total receipts, and one hundred and forty-three per cent of all receipts outside of freight. i go The Reorganization oj Our Colleges It has already been shown that the capital of our col- leges and universities is approximately $600,000,000 and their annual income $40,000,000. But they would be horrified at the suggestion that, like the great industrial corporations, they should devote twenty-five per cent of their gross income, or like the great railroads, thirty per cent of their gross income, to repairs and replace- ments of their teaching machines, and for sinking and reserve funds, etc. The college has no vast depreciation or reserve funds, and no ability, on present lines, to accumulate such funds out of current receipts. Such funds must come, if at all, from gifts; that is, from new drafts upon its friends, and the chief executive must devote his energies largely to this extramural work of raising fresh capital rather than to his legitimate work within the walls. Only after he is sure that his plant is in proper condi- tion to do its best work does the careful manufacturer proceed to make it turn out its maximum of marketable and first-class product and no more. He does not overload his machinery, or ask a hundred-ton-per-day plant to produce two hundred tons per day. Overload- ing the machinery inevitably leads to deterioration (a) of the plant, (b) of the product, and (c) of the reputation and prestige with customers and the public, that is, of the good will and trade name, which oftentimes are the manufacturer's most important assets. He knows that such deterioration is too heavy a price to pay for the added output. But our colleges always have reversed and still per- sistently reverse this salutary rule as to caring for their The New Primary Unit 191 plant and limiting their output. Whenever any institu- tion has done unusually good work or offered unusual opportunities, an undue number of students have crowded to its doors and have been meekly received upon some theory criminal in its foolishness that col- lege machinery is governed by different rules than any other, and may be overloaded to the breaking point, re- gardless of the evil effects (a) on the teaching force it- self, or (b) on the student product, or (c) on the reputa- tion of the institution. Thus has been caused a terrible waste of teachers, pupils and good name; and, as we have seen, the college does not, like the careful manu- facturer, provide any huge maintenance, depreciation, reserve or sinking funds out of which to make good this wastage. If a college is doing unusually good work with 250 students, it is pretty sure to allow its enrollment to in- crease to 350 or 500 without any corresponding increase in its capital and plant; that is, in its endowment and teaching facilities, which should have been increased in a geometrical proportion before allowing any increase in the student body. It is easy to multiply examples of this mistaken policy on the part of the colleges. Two will suffice. 1 COLLEGE A Productive College Income per Year. Students. Funds. Staff. Income. Student. *OI/'02 642 $2,429.594 70 $181.422 $281 'o2/'o3 686 2,400.000 74 146.900 214 'o 3 /'o4 870 2,356.455 79 181.173 208 'o4/'o5 926 2,600.000 80 181.000 195 1 From Annual Reports of U. S. Commissioner of Education. 192 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges COLLEGE B Productive College Income per Year. Freshman. Total. Funds. Income. Student. '02/'0 3 279 1015 $i ,232.344 76 $253.281 $250 'c>3/'o4 3 11 1033 I ,191.796 77 233.367 225 '047*05 '057*06 358 402 1067 1213 I I ,261.444 ,296.998 79 85 235-977 256.854 221 213 This may be stated in another form. Suppose that a college is doing work with 500 students at an annual cost per student of $300; of which each student contrib- utes $100 in tuition while the endowment contributes the remaining $200. That is, the total college income of $150,00x3 is admirably providing for the education of 500 undergraduates. If the number of students is increased to 1,000 without any increase of endowment returns, we shall have an income of $200,000, made up of $100,000 from tuition (1,000 students at $100 each) and $100,000 from endowment income; an average of only $200 per student. Unless this increase in the number of students is ac- companied by a commensurate increase in endowment or other income, we find that the growth of the student body is attended with a decreased income per student, and a decreased return per capita for the faculty, although the latter's work must be relatively greater. Moreover, this strain is sure to come unequally and unfairly upon the members of the faculty. The best men, whose work has made the college successful, are apt to be overworked, while courses of other men, draw- ing equal pay, are neglected, and these latter become an actual drag upon those who have chiefly contributed to the improvement of the college. If the situation had been clearly analyzed the fault would have been found The New Primary Unit 193 in the lack of an adequate administrative department. But the unfortunate results have been plainly evident, and have prejudiced many bright minds against becom- ing college teachers, and have turned them toward business or the professions, where at least there is appreciation and financial reward for high-grade work. The professors who have made possible the successful working of a college should be rewarded by better pay and more time for self-improvement rather than by in- creasing their burdens and overworking them to the breaking point even if this reward to the teachers de- mands a substantial reduction in the numbers of each entering class until the capital and plant have fully caught up with additional requirements. The successful teacher and not the successful coach should get the ad- ditional compensation; for it has too often happened that a large increase in the number of students has been felt to justify and require the employment of a much higher-priced athletic coach, but a lower scale of com- pensation for the instructors, especially in the junior grades. Certainly this is a fair example of how the col- lege itself has placed an undue premium upon athletics the college community life at the expense of the pedagogical forces and intellectual worth. The wise merchant or manufacturer rewards those employees who have made his success possible, and upon whom he must depend for continued prosperity. He increases their pay, takes off the burdens of detail, makes them feel that their good work is appreciated and that they are reserved for higher and better positions; and 194 The Reorganization of Our Colleges not that they are to be punished for their contribution to his success by having additional and more grinding work put upon them. In the reorganized college the good work of the teacher will have first consideration, and not the wishes of that percentage of the student body who have been attracted because a professional coach with plenty of money and the faculty and college sentiment to aid him has been able to turn out successful athletic teams; and it will be one of the chief objects of the administra- tive department to insure that this policy of the college is carried out. The fact that the modern college plan of "everything for the student and intercollegiate athletics, and the devil take the faculty/' has been found wanting, and not conducive to fostering true scholarliness or the good name of Alma Mater, is another reason why it has be- come necessary to consider a thorough reorganization of the college. The third annual report of the Carnegie Foundation (p. 75) says: "The greatest obstacle in the past has been the ever- present competition for numbers, which is the great demor- alization in all American education." This is here treated as a simple business proposition. The waste of future citizen material at this point in our college factory is unnecessary and irreparable, and here is one of the reasons why our colleges have not brought forth more great productive scholars. One phase of this waste can be illustrated. In Germany the gymna- sium carries a boy to about the end of our sophomore The New Primary Unit 195 year, and up to this point his studies have been dis- tinctly what we would call high-school work, under high- school teachers and methods. When he goes to the uni- versity he enters upon his professional course, under teachers whose aims and methods are entirely different from those of the gymnasium. The German university professors are men who have made great names for themselves by original work in their own departments, or else they would not be where they are; and they have probably won, also, civic and social distinction. In other words, in Germany there is the sharpest distinc- tion between high-school and professional or university teaching standards and methods, and one who would be- come a professor in the university must be a producer of high rank. This was essentially the original idea of our earliest colleges. "There was comparatively little below the college, and almost nothing above it." Its teaching was that of the professional school and it trained di- rectly for professional life as it was then understood. Hence the instructors had the honor of being among the chief divines and logicians in the community, for theol- ogy and logic were the supreme professional training. Any further vocational training was not in a distinct school, but in the home of a pastor or the office of a lawyer or doctor. But after awhile our modern idea of a distinct professional school began to be engrafted upon our colleges, and their courses had more and more a tendency to become mere extensions of high-school courses, and their teachers and methods merely a sub- limated and higher preparation for the professional 196 The Reorganization of Our Colleges school. At this point the college professors began to be put at a distinct disadvantage. They had many of the drawbacks of the high-school teachers and few of the outside opportunities of the professional schools. More and more the tendency was to make them drudges in- stead of producers. Every year we turn out a fine crop of prospective college instructors of great promise and with high ambitions and gifts. They feel capable of doing good original work and of bettering the methods of the average professor under whose instructions they have sat. But thirty years before, that average pro- fessor had had the same capability and ambitions, until these were killed out of him by the poor administrative methods and bad factory practice of our colleges. Un- less we thoroughly reorganize our college practice, each new crop of prospective college professors must be be- numbed and stunted by the very drudgery that a suc- cessful start will entail. Furthermore, the almost cer- tain extension of the preceptorial system, in varying forms, is sure to be attended with great danger that it will dwarf the coming race of pedagogues unless this in- sidious danger is most earnestly studied and guarded against. The same process which has put the college professor between the professional and the high-school teachers will tend to create a permanent class of pre- ceptors and drudges below the college professors; just as in a large bank few employees ever become more than poorly paid bank clerks with large responsibility in routine lines. We are likely thus to put a further pre- mium on our constant waste, through poor administra- tive methods, of high-class pedagogical material which L'F. The New Primary Unit 197 is capable of doing good original and teaching work in its chosen field. The Briggs Report says of Harvard's assistant in- structors: "As the number of men assigned to each assistant is large, he can give little time to each, and that only at long intervals, usually seeing each of his men for ten or fifteen minutes at a time about once a month. ... As the uni- versity is now organized these assistants are necessarily young men and therefore without experience in teaching." 1 The Carnegie Foundation calls attention to the fact that, while the teaching forces of Columbia and Harvard are practically alike in number, Columbia annually pays about $300,000 more to her instructing staff than does Harvard, and that the difference chiefly is "in the sal- aries paid in the teaching grades below faculty rank. The average instructor at Harvard receives $753 a year less than the average instructor at Columbia." 2 Such a condition is unfair for the student, but immeasurably more so for the assistants who are supposedly picked men. What inspiration to such men is there in seeing each of his pupils " for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, about once a month?" Or what inspiration to the pupils, when the instructors use their poorly paid posi- tions as a makeshift to enable them to pursue their own studies? It will become clearer, as we proceed, that these are strictly administrative and not pedagogical questions, and must be solved through an up-to-date college ad- 1 "Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 176, 402, 403. * Carnegie Foundation Bulletin, No. Two, p. 38. 198 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges ministrative department conducted on the best modern business principles. The inherent difference between the teaching methods of college and professional schools, and the chaos and waste which have resulted from the attempt to cover graduate and undergraduate work in the same classes in our so-called universities, have been very clearly set forth in Flexner's "The American College," in Chapter V. But the evils at this point are not pedagogical, for the teaching in itself is admittedly becoming better each year. Any good manufacturer would see that these questions were administrative rather than pedagogical; that is, whether the raw material was being treated in the right way by the proper machinery. It is not a question of whether one factory has the proper facilities to turn out car springs and another the right machinery to turn out watch springs; but rather whether, because of lack of proper administration, the watch spring ma- terial has been delivered to the car factory, and the watch factory is attempting to hammer out car springs. It is plainly evident that, in such a case, it is the ad- ministration and not the machinery which is at fault. Only when we reorganize our college factories so as to make and keep our instructors as our chief primary units of the highest grade, and in the highest state of efficiency, and with constant opportunities and incen- tives for self-improvement, and all this in charge of a coordinate, sympathetic and earnest department look- ing for results, shall we get anything like the product of which our institutions are capable. Then only will it be possible to thoroughly study college conditions and The New Primary Unit 199 methods so as to determine exactly the true place of the college in our system of higher education. Then only can we restore the older conditions when the position of a college professor carried with it a civic and social honor which, in part at least, compensated for its hard- ships and manifold deprivations. More and more we must, through our separate administrative department, restore this feature to college pedagogy. Thus the re- organized colleges can regain their hold on the better class of young men as teachers, and keep them to their best work, since this alone will bring them the highest honors. This phase of the college problem is being carefully studied by the Carnegie Foundation. Some of its conclusions will be found in Appendix No. IV. CHAPTER XVI THE NATURE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND AD- MINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS THIS may be well called the age of organization, re- organization and system, for the paramount questions in all large affairs are now those of administration and or- ganization. A large but poorly organized factory or mercantile establishment is sure to end in bankruptcy. Our modern railroad and shipping companies are mar- vels of intricate and perfected administrative and execu- tive systems. Administrative problems arise when the number of employees is greatly increased, and, as well, when intricate and expensive machinery is introduced to take the place of many men. There are few such prob- lems where 5,000 men are scattered in groups of five through a thousand shops, but the questions become many and difficult when these 5,000 workmen are gathered into one establishment and under one manage- ment. In the same manner an intricate machine han- dled by one man, but doing the work of 100 unskilled workmen, adds to the administrative difficulties of the concern. It may not require so many men to work it, but it has a large first cost upon which it must earn in- terest, depreciation and replacement charges, and hence it must not stand idle; it has a large producing capacity, Nature of Administrative Departments 201 and hence must be kept supplied with a larger amount of raw material ; and its larger output must be constantly, economically and advantageously disposed of. Thus a modern and efficient machine does away with some of the lower forms of administrative problems arising in connection with unskilled workmen, but gives rise to a more difficult kind connected with skilled and high- priced labor and intricate and costly machinery. So it is with our colleges. Their problems increase geometrically, not only with the number of their students and faculty, but also with the number and intricacy of their courses and the higher grade of their work. Within sixty years the students of Columbia have in- creased about thirty fold and her faculty almost fifty fold. But no one would think of suggesting that her educational and administrative problems had increased merely thirty or fifty fold. It would be nearer the truth to say that there are more than fifty new kinds of such problems which were undreamed of sixty years ago; and that each of these is fifty times more difficult than any of the earlier period. We must fully understand this so that we may appreciate that our new college administra- tive department must be under the charge of adminis- trative and not pedagogical experts. Very few of the problems of the quasi state and public servant which we discuss herein have any strict connection with pedagogy, pure and simple. They belong rather to the student life, or to the financial, board of control, administrative or executive departments; and pedagogy should be content to let these other departments handle their own problems so long as they do so in such a way as to improve the net 2O2 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges results of the instructional branch and enable it to turn out better citizen material. More and more every branch of a modern business tends to sharp cleavage into departments and bureaus and to specialization. Clerks are given certain branches of work, and expected to stick to those and not to meddle with any others. In large affairs it is better nay, es- sential that experts should be put over the many differ- ent departments. Otherwise there would be no system and no real progress. This has been carried to an ex- treme in one of our most successful trusts, wherein the various branches of business have been organized, not into departments, but into separate and important cor- porations, now aggregating more than 100 in number. Not only are the 678 retail stores of one branch of this business conducted under one corporation, but this latter hires its stores from another subsidiary company which does nothing but secure and handle leases upon desirable locations, and conduct a real estate business in that connection. The affairs of the colleges are now so large and ex- tended that they must draw a sharp distinction between their departments, and even between the different bu- reaus in these departments; just as already they do be- tween the different courses in their curriculum. They must let the experts of the financial, pedagogical, ad- ministrative, executive and student life departments handle the affairs of their respective departments, and hold them responsible for the results therein; just as they now differentiate between the Greek and the Latin courses, or among the various sciences, which were Nature o) Administrative Departments 203 formerly taught by the same man. This distinct defi- nition of duties and powers, and this placing of responsi- bility in connection therewith, are cardinal principles in good business practice, and must be so in the colleges. The very fact that it has not been so shows the need of reorganization. President Eliot, in his "University Administration," p. 82, says: "The faculty of arts and sciences in a broadly developed university will necessarily be large, and its individual mem- bers will probably have a thorough knowledge of only one or two out of the numerous departments of instruction with- in the faculty. The mathematicians may often have little sympathy with, or knowledge of, the language departments, and will be closely affiliated only with the departments of physics, chemistry, mechanics, and astronomy. The pro- fessors of history will probably know little, and perhaps care little, about the scientific departments; but will maintain rather close relations with the departments of government and economics. Distinguished men and admirable teach- ers in such a faculty may easily know nothing to speak of about more than half of the subjects of instruction dealt with by their faculty." Certainly if the various members of the college fac- ulty "have little sympathy with or knowledge of" the problems of their fellow- instructors, far less can they sympathize with, or have knowledge of, or be fitted by sympathy or knowledge to solve the intricate adminis- trative problems of the huge college factory which now embraces from 1,000 to 5,000 members, and of which President Eliot says: "The American universities have grown in a casual, ag- glutinating way, without any definite plan or framework to tie together the different departments which were success- 2O4 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges ively created. They have ordinarily started with the some- what definite organization called a college, and around this college have grown up an undergraduate department of ap- plied science, including agriculture and engineering, and so- called professional schools of law, medicine, dentistry, phar- macy, finance or commerce, and, in a few cases, divinity. The standard of admission to the professional schools has usually been much lower than the standard of admission to the college; and indeed in many universities there have been no requirements at all for admission to the professional schools; so that anybody could enter them, with or without any preparatory education. Their students were therefore very heterogeneous in quality, and were, as a rule, looked down upon by the college students who were candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Now a group of de- tached, unrelated schools is not a university; and it is for the trustees of the larger American institutions of the higher education to convert these groups of schools into true uni- versities." ' But this change in external scope has been accom- panied by an equally far-reaching change in internal methods, for President Eliot says further: "The rapidity and completeness with which methods of instruction and fields of instruction change from generation to generation, and even from decade to decade, is one of the most astonishing facts in the history of education. Thus there is not a single subject within the whole range of in- struction at Harvard University, from the beginning of the undergraduate course to the end of the professional courses, which is now taught in the same way in which it was taught forty years ago, or which offers the same field of instruction which it offered to the student of the last generation. All the methods and apparatus of teaching, and the spirit or temper of teacher and taught alike, have changed. Some of these profound changes begin in the faculties; but others begin outside the university in the working world, and must be discerned, appreciated, and adopted by the faculties; 1 " University Administration," p. 39. Nature oj Administrative Departments 205 some are university inventions; but many are the conse- quences of social, industrial, and political changes in the outside world. Every faculty, therefore, has to keep up with the rapid march of educational events, and for this purpose it must have frequent stated meetings, and patient discussion of new proposals." l Any trained business man must perceive that the problems which have arisen from such changes in our 850 competing colleges and universities are strictly ad- ministrative in their nature, although relating to college pedagogy; and are not, in any sense, pedagogical prob- lems of an administrative nature. In our further dis- cussions we shall see how terrible have been the losses and wastes especially in valuable citizen material from our failure to perceive the fundamental difference in content and treatment between a solving by adminis- tration of questions of a pedagogical nature and the at- tempt to solve administrative questions by pedagogical methods which have not even been able to solve their own pedagogical questions. From their very nature, administrative and executive departments are an added expense without direct pro- ducing power. That is, they are directory and super- visory rather than productive, using this word in its narrow sense. Yet they are constantly multiplied and extended at increasing cost in every well-conducted bus- iness. This is one of the penalties we pay for modern machinery and skilled labor. The president of a rail- road company does no practical work in any of the pro- ductive departments. His duties are purely executive. The same is true of substantially all the high-priced men 1 "University Administration," p. 119. 206 The Reorganization of Our Colleges connected with the corporation. They belong to the ad- ministrative or executive branches of the business, not adding directly to the income, but rather reducing it. That is, they are an additional expense, to the end that the net profits may be larger because of the greater safety, system and science with which the business is conducted. They have become necessary merely be- cause the increased numbers of those engaged in the common pursuit, the great field to be covered, the com- petition of well-organized rivals, and the use and care of modern and intricate machinery demand constantly im- proving administrative and executive systems. When the railroad consisted of a short single track, on which a single mixed passenger and freight train ran first in one direction and then in the other, two or three men could fill every position in the operating, adminis- trative and executive departments. The separation and multiplication of these departments and their various bureaus are chiefly the results of the growth of the busi- ness. Every foreman and superintendent is in one sense an administrative officer, or an additional expense for the purpose of getting better or even good work out of those who actually produce, although, for bookkeeping purposes, his wages may be charged with other labor in the operating expenses. The rule with railroad contractors is about one fore- man to each gang of twelve laborers, and a similar rule as to the proportion of foremen or superintendents, with variance only as to the number supervised, runs through the employment of labor in all fields. In most large manufacturing concerns the cost of the administrative Nature oj Administrative Departments 207 and executive forces, that is, those who do not directly produce, is upward of ten per cent of the total outgo, in- cluding raw material. As a matter of fact, the preceptorial system at Prince- ton is quite as much an administrative as a pedagogical advance. It is an attempt to insure that the good work of the higher professors shall not be wasted upon an un- prepared and unappreciative mass of students. The preceptors are the college foremen insuring good results in their own limited divisions. In addition to the executive, the usual strictly admin- istrative agencies of an ordinary manufacturing business may be divided into those which are in their nature (a) creative, (b) directive, (c) corrective, (d) recording, (e) investigating, and (/) those which create trade not prod- ucts. These same administrative functions in modified forms are applicable in our colleges, and should be dif- ferentiated and put in force therein. (a) The creative agencies are those which prepare and lay out work for the operating or producing forces; for example, those which design, plan or draft the particular form or content of the thing to be produced, so that it may accomplish the end in view or satisfy the demands of the customer or trade. (b) The directive forces are those which superintend the actual turning out of the product or manufactured articles; for example, the superintendent, the master mechanic or master car builder, and so on down through all those who supervise but do not themselves perform labor. In the earlier days of small things the master labored beside his journeymen or apprentices, doing the 208 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges finest work himself; but to-day we find foremen and as- sistant foremen; and over these, superintendents and as- sistants; and above these, managers and their deputies; and so on up through the various administrative and ex- ecutive forces to the president. (c) The corrective agencies are those which fix stand- ards of good work or good results for the other departr ments and then enforce compliance with these standards ; as, for instance, the inspectors, the credit and auditing bureaus, etc. (d) The recording forces are the bookkeepers and others who keep the records of the establishment, its credits and debits, its purchases, sales, etc. (e) The investigators are those who, in the light of past experience, are looking for new and improved methods, machinery, products and outlets, that there may not be stagnation, but rather increased growth, power and output to meet the constantly changing con- ditions of the plant itself and of its customers and com- petitors. Such also is the dead work in a mine, to dis- cover and develop in advance new workings which shall be ready to continue the output when the older parts of the mine are worked out. But this dead work and in- vestigation are carried on out of the current receipts of the producing portion of the concern and so are an added expense, and to that extent reduce current divi- dends. (/) Those which get trade to keep the producing part of the plant in operation. Such are the advertising and the salesmen with their traveling and other expenses. Substantially all of these administrative bureaus exist Nature o] Administrative Departments 209 in any extensive producing business. As it grows, these divisions are further developed, differentiated and sys- tematized, until at last they become almost or quite separate businesses by themselves yet are all a finan- cial necessity, but a financial drag upon the forces which actually and manually turn out the material produced by the concern, and which are the chief forces in every small or primitive business. Their nature is the same in the main, and the rules which govern them are simi- lar, whatever may be the business or calling in which they are to apply. The administrative experts may even be the veriest tyros in the technical parts of the work, since the necessary technical knowledge can be supplied by the practical workers and experts. How completely general administration is an expense and not a producing agency is illustrated by a statement of the heads under which it is carried. In the books of one large trust, separate accounts of administration and executive expenses are kept under the following head- ings: President Bureau of Statistics Construction and Main- Vice President Bureau of Tests tenance Treasurer General Office Transportation Secretary Law Woodlands General Manager Purchasing Insurance and Taxes Auditing Manufacturing Exports Accounting Sales In other words, there are nineteen separate adminis- trative or executive departments or bureaus superim- posed upon the productive forces, and necessary to get good results out of the producers of the business. As the college is distinctively a factory, it requires some- 2io The Reorganization oj Our Colleges thing of this same separate executive and administra- tive organization to get satisfactory results out of the raw material which is turned over to the care of the in- structors, who are the college workers and producers. But as these administrative departments have grown in size, the objects which they originally had in view have increased in scope, importance and results, to cor- respond with the added cost. The wise business man does not hesitate to increase his administrative ex- penses if thereby he can improve other conditions. In the colleges the general subject may be pedagogi- cal, but the administrative system, to be successful and complete, must be essentially like and modeled after those applied in ordinary industries and callings, and be run upon the same general principles. It is a question of numbers, and size, and intricacy, and not of peda- gogy. This and the need of a separate administrative department are well illustrated by the Briggs Report, wherein the committee of the faculty of Harvard College upon improving instruction therein frankly confessed themselves unable to cope successfully even with the ad- ministrative problems directly connected with the peda- gogy of the college. The whole investigation was a brave attempt upon the part of the faculty to do another's work. The very words with which they open their re- port should have convinced them that their investigation was extrapedagogical : "Early in the deliberations of the committee it became clear that neither the faculty nor any member of the faculty possessed accurate and detailed knowledge of the methods and the efficiency of instruction in all the different courses, Nature of Administrative Departments 211 and that the committee, if it would speak intelligently, must get such knowledge." And so this committee labored for two years in gathering and collating the information and statistics which the administrative department of a modern fac- tory would have had in its records in a much more satis- factory form, and which it could supply to the president upon a few days' notice, and by the use of the ordinary clerical force, and covering a series of years. The in- formation thus obtained applied to only one institution during a single year, and hence was valueless for another institution, or for Harvard a few years later. It was not, as in the case of a business office, on tap, kept up to date, constantly growing broader and broader, and made more available every year for the use of every one con- nected with the establishment. The Briggs investiga- tion was indeed a fearless investigation along college methods. But from the point of modern administrative methods it was crude and unscientific and ought to have been unnecessary. It was as far behind business prac tice as it was ahead of college practice. As our college finances are conducted by financial, not pedagogical, experts, and our pedagogical department by masters of pedagogy, so our college administration should be run by administrative, and not pedagogical, experts. Hence in our college reorganization we shall differentiate as sharply between pedagogy, pure and simple, and administration and the executive, as we now do between finances and the pedagogy which is clogged and fettered by unnecessary and misunderstood administrative problems based on high-school and col- 212 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges onial college conditions. A few samples will show how marked is this sharp distinction and cleavage between the administrative and all other departments in modern business affairs of importance. In a mercantile house the rights and duties of the salesman and the credit man are clearly distinguished. No matter what orders for goods may be obtained, they must be approved by the credit man. In a factory the cost department is apart from and regulates the manufacturing, and determines what profit is made upon each product, and charges to each its pro- portion of the fixed and other general expenses. In an insurance company, the agents may bring in business and the medical department may approve the risks, but the actuary must determine the basis and plan on which the company can safely write its policies and accumulate its reserve. Thus, in every modern business or industry of impor- tance, there are dominant administrative departments which do not produce business, but regulate it and make it safe and profitable in the end ; which do not in them- selves directly increase the assets of the concern, and whose cost is each year written off to profit and loss. Yet this cost is justified by the improved net results of the whole establishment. So in the reorganized college the administration will not be productive like the finances and pedagogy, but regulative like the credit man, the cost accountant, the actuary and the other administrative departments un- der whatever name or form which in other large affairs bring order out of chaos and insure profitable results, Nature oj Administrative Departments 213 while conserving the good name of the whole; but all adapted to the conditions of that particular institution, and with novel improvements to meet novel exigencies. A good administrative department systematizes and lightens the labors of everyone connected with it, and thus gets better results. In the New York offices of the great trusts the clerks are promptly dismissed at five o'clock each afternoon with as much regularity as the members of a trades union; and at its eighteen-story building, No. 26 Broadway, New York City, the Stand- ard Oil Company emphasizes this rule by turning off its electric lights at 5 P.M. and stopping all elevator ser- vice at 6 P.M. After these hours everyone must use gas and tramp up and down stairs. Much unnecessary la- bor and waste of time of all connected with the college could be done away with by introducing some much- needed reforms through a separate administrative de- partment. Much of the college work could be done in ) one half the time now required if the colleges could in- troduce some of the system which their undergraduates will find pervading every department of life as soon as they leave Alma Mater's doors. We must now further examine in detail some of the ordinary administrative bureaus, to ascertain if they cannot and must not be adapted to college conditions and used to improve college methods and results, if our reorganization is to be on anything like as high a plane as prevails in our modern corporations. Possibly we shall approach this examination more open-mindedly if we know that there is one well-authen- ticated case (and undoubtedly many more) where busi- 214 The Reorganization of Our Colleges ness methods have been deliberately introduced into the college under the direction of a trained business admin- istrative expert, and that the pedagogical effects thereof have been eminently satisfactory. The following is an extract from a letter of the Secretary of Columbia University : "As a result of one year's vigorous business administra- tion of the dean's office in the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry of Columbia University, the number of course conditions per student was reduced forty-three per cent, the number of entrance conditions carried by students being reduced sixty-two per cent in the same time. Put in another way, the ratio of conditions carried by first, second and third year men last year, to those carried by second, third, and fourth year men, this year (i. e., the same students one year later) was seven to one." CHAPTER XVII BOOKKEEPING AND ACCOUNTING IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE WE cannot understand modern business administra- tion unless we see how, from comparatively simple be- ginnings, it has developed and built up intricate and indispensable bureaus and systems with wide uses and beneficent results. This is well illustrated by the growth of the science of modern accounting. Until comparatively recent years bookkeeping was merely the most elementary form of preserving a record of the simplest financial dealings, that is, of the debits and credits. A crude single-entry ledger and daybook sufficed for most concerns. But as the transactions in- creased in variety, complexity and amount, bookkeeping errors also increased and required some check ; and ac- cordingly the double-entry system with its trial balance was introduced, with the sole object, at first, of detecting errors in entering and posting. As late as thirty years ago this new system was often strenuously opposed as not yielding results which could pay for the additional time, expense and skill which it required. But soon modern exigencies began to demand, not merely accuracy in entering and posting, or knowledge of how much the concern owed or was owed, and to and from whom, but rather what it was doing in its own 215 216 The Reorganization of Our Colleges various branches and how much it was making or losing in each. In other words, the main thing became, not its debit and credit relation to others, but what the busi- ness itself was costing and earning in each department and item. That is, the prime object grew to be an an- alysis, to the finest detail, of the business itself and of its own shortcomings and successes. In this emergency it was found that the new-fangled and much-opposed double-entry bookkeeping furnished an instrument, ready to hand, which could be easily de- veloped to meet the additional and changed require- ments. Thus this method, which was devised merely as a check upon the accuracy of the bookkeeper's work, has become the foundation of a most intricate and deli- cate internal analysis and system, comprehending book- keeping, auditing, cost-accounting, and the collection of statistics which serve both as a diagnosis and prognosis of the business. Without it, and the improvements which have grown out of it, true success in the tangle of modern business conditions would be impossible and bankruptcy would be inevitable; for modern auditing and accounting in all their forms are directly based upon double-entry bookkeeping. But, again, all this implies additional administrative detail and expense. Our colleges have not gotten beyond the single-entry stage, nor can we expect them to rise to anything in ad- ministrative methods corresponding to modern account- ing and auditing, so long as they imagine that they can meet the intricacies of their modern problems by cling- ing to colonial and pedagogical single-entry methods. I am not now speaking of the college financial de- Bookkeeping and Accounting 217 partment, because, as already shown, its bookkeeping and accounting problems are so simple that there is really no excuse for their not being kept in a perfectly satisfactory form. I am referring rather to the failure of the colleges to develop any truly scientific and com- prehensive system for finding out the facts, and for an- ticipating and meeting the problems which have been arising daily in connection with the expansion of the college, and its adoption of university methods if not of university form, and the other fundamental changes which we have had occasion to discuss herein, and which were so clearly indicated in the extracts from President Eliot's latest book, given on pages 203 and 204. One man who is almost more closely related than anyone else to college affairs, and especially to religious educa- tion, puts it in this way: " It seems to be the impression that as soon as you get into the atmosphere of college education, and especially of edu- cation under the auspices of religion, you have no right to look for facts." This is a pretty broad statement, but it comes from one who has had the very best opportunities to judge of conditions. Possibly the nature of the rather technical change in the business bookkeeping system, and the difference between business and college ideals, can be made clearer in another way. Under the crude single- entry system the proprietor's only unit was the external debits and credits of the business, expressed in dollars and cents, and this was quite sufficient for a small busi- ness conducted under simple and primitive conditions. But as the business expanded, it became necessary, in 218 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges order to accomplish the same results, to provide new units by which to measure results and meet competition units of time and men and machines, of profit and loss in each department, of detailed expenses and costs, and all the other units which make up the objects and ends of a modern accounting and auditing system. But our colleges are too much inclined to stick to the most paltry feature of their original unit of value and ac- counting. They are content to magnify the marking system as a substitute for the former intimate personal knowledge of the teacher and taught, brought about by daily contact for four years in a very small college. They forget that a student was not told of his marks unless he made special inquiry after graduation, and that marks were kept merely to determine rank and honors upon the commencement stage. 1 We must find new units of value in our reorganized colleges; units based upon a broad training for citizen- ship; units calculated to supply the lack of the intimate acquaintance with the pupil's personal characteristics and educational needs which gave the earlier professor such an ability to train each individual student as he needed to be trained. Huge numbers of students and teachers, and changed social and other conditions make impossible the former close personal acquaintance of all within the college walls. The same results must now be obtained in other ways and through new units, as in business ; and these new units of value, and the methods of properly applying them, must be one of the functions of a bureau of the new administrative department; and, 1 "Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 57, 186. Bookkeeping and Accounting 219 so far as possible, each new unit must have a like value in every institution. We must have an administrative system broad enough to cover all of the diversities of our colleges, and yet cap- able of being applied to the ordinary problems of any particular institution. This diversity has an important bearing on this present phase of our subject, because it emphasizes the great differences which exist in the pro- fessed or actual aims of our various educators and in- stitutions, and of their systems of study and training; which differences are enfeebling and disturbing in the highest degree, and must continue to be so until some modern form of accounting and auditing, applicable to college conditions, introduces some uniformity and new units of value into their records and methods. We must agree as to the objects for which we are to work after our reorganization, or else that reorganization will be in- complete because not directed to any well-defined goal agreed upon by institutions of the same class and with similar aims. This can be accomplished only by devis- ing and extensively applying something like a modern double-entry auditing and accounting system to the ped- agogical, that is, to the producing part of our colleges. The evident differences between what the college does stand for and what it should stand for indicates to the unprejudiced observer from without that there are not sufficient common data, and hence no common point from which to argue. These must be obtained through bureaus of the administrative departments of many col- leges working together upon an agreed system. This may seem technical to many readers, but it will 220 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges appeal to business men, public accountants, corporation lawyers and reorganizes; and a very little and first-hand investigation will convince them that the charges are well founded, and that the colleges are still in their single-entry stage in administration. They still have, too often, a crude system for keeping the debits and credits which entitle a man to a sixty or seventy per cent diploma, but they have no way of analyzing, day by day or even term by term, the real results, in the pedagogical and student life departments, of each branch and subdivision of the college work. As a matter of fact, a college education consists of the final molding which the student citizen gets in each of the three planes of his college life. The college book- keeping system is largely based upon the idea that that education consists of getting a diploma by hook or by crook. When a college education means to us in name what it does in fact to the individual, we shall see that the college must have some way of internal analyzation such as every good business concern possesses and uses. We will understand, as we proceed, how indispensable this analysis has become in modern business and manu- facturing, and how invaluable and indispensable it will seem to all concerned after it shall have had a fair trial in the college. One of our largest universities, for example, has not been able to put into practice a modern method of de- termining even the exact financial cost of its several de- partments. These hand in estimates upon which the annual budget is based. But at the end of the year the surpluses and deficits of the several departments are Bookkeeping and Accounting 221 arranged by trading postage stamps and supplies. There is no question of dishonesty involved, but the institu- tion's bookkeeping must be essentially misleading and valueless. If this be true of so simple a matter as its cash account, it is not surprising to learn that a recent careful exami- nation of its pedagogical account disclosed many courses in the catalogue which had not been taken by a single student for some years. If the institution can afford it, it may be quite necessary that there shall be many grad- uate courses which are taken by but few students. The point here is that the college auditing department should be able to know and show the relative value, instruc- tionally, of every part of its working force and machin- ery, and that, until this is as thoroughly so in the college as the great business trust, the college is at a marked dis- advantage in determining how it can most wisely apply its financial, pedagogical and other resources in meeting its obligations as a public servant. After a pretty careful examination of college methods, and from a practical knowledge of the growth of ac- counting and business administration for thirty years, I am sure that, if our colleges would formulate and apply new units of value and up-to-date administrative and accounting methods, they would quadruple in ten years their net results in wholesome training for citizenship, without a dollar's increase in endowment, and to the lasting satisfaction and gain of all concerned, and at a relatively great saving in cost. Certainly an educational institution, with millions of capital, ought to have as modern an accounting system 222 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges of time, money, material, men and net results, as thou- sands of corporations with one hundredth of its capital. The whole college economy would be upset if the presi- dent should call for a tithe of the detailed information which the auditing and accounting bureaus of a great trust furnish daily as a matter of course. But this would be just as true of the trust if its workmen were asked for this information. It is the latters' duty to work and produce, and let the administrative depart- ment gather its information and facts by its own methods. So in our reorganized college it will be a bureau of its new administrative department which will do the ac- counting work, and the instructors will give their time to teaching and to improving their own departments. Some of the marked and epoch-making improvements, which will follow from the adoption in our reorganized colleges of something approximating to modern ac- counting, will become apparent as we proceed. CHAPTER XVin THE USE OF BLANK FORMS IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE THE only great profession or business in our country, dealing with large numbers of men and having wide competition, which has failed to elaborate and adopt a comprehensive set of blank forms, is the college which, nevertheless, is presumed to be intelligently training our future problem solvers and citizens. This failure is em- phasized because it indicates how little college pedagogy understands or, under its present administrative ideals, can understand its own internal problems or the modern methods and tools available to help it in solving those problems; and hence how little probability there is that, of its own initiative, it can hope to work out of its diffi- culties, or to fit its students to intelligently use forms and blanks in their own future work. Yet the use of forms, blanks and precedents is an important educational fea- ture which must be learned at some future time in the students* training. Definite forms or blanks serve several vital uses in modern business and affairs: (1) To obtain and preserve exactness and the best precedents, and thus to save time, money and mental wear, as in law forms, insurance policies, etc. (2) To systematize details, increase administrative 223 224 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges effectiveness and decrease administrative expense, and thus, incidentally, to make it possible for experts in any line to take up their work in any place; as, for example, bookkeeping and auditing systems. Forms and blanks also exactly define the work to be done and the method of doing it, iind promote honesty in handling the time and property of other people. (3) To analyze intricate affairs so as to enable us (a) to study them in their slightest detail ; (b) to know every day what a vast establishment is doing; (c) to contrast easily and surely present conditions with those of the past; (d) to detect errors before they have become serious or chronic; (e) to know precisely what each department or product costs, and where a profit or loss is being made; and hence (/) to collect statistics which will furnish us a compass by which to steer our future course. Such modern analyzations are seen in cost systems, railroad accounting methods, etc. Let us examine these three classes more carefully and in detail. (i) The earliest instances of forms as precedents are found in the law. The ancient writs and forms date back many centuries and serve as examples of the con- scientious endeavor of the law, first, to exactly define and then to preserve our legal rights and remedies. No law- yer can imagine what would be the present legal uncer- tainty if the best minds upon the bench and at the bar and in the legislature had not been constantly exercised to prepare, preserve and improve legal forms and prec- edents, or if each state's attorney or court clerk or other public official was not bound down, yet immensely helped, by rigid forms and precedents. What would The Use oj Blank Forms 225 courts of law do if, instead of using and passing upon the standardized and recognized forms and precedents in common use, they were constantly called upon to construe and sign higgledy-piggledy forms to be devised upon each occasion by each lawyer? Or what would a life insurance expert say if each agent, skilled or un- skilled, might send in an application in a form to be evolved in each case, and if each medical examiner wrote out his own varying medical report, and if the clerks in the home office drew each new policy in the form which occurred to them at the moment? If, for example, there were no recognized forms and standards of insurance policies, it would be necessary to have the writing of these intricate contracts done under the charge of a skilled lawyer, instead of having the written blanks filled in by an intelligent clerk. Yet after 270 years of college development in this country, such is about the stage at which we have arrived as to forms and precedents with the exception that, in intercol- legiate athletics, our alumni athletic committees have worked out a rigid set of precedents and rules in football and other sports; and that, in their baseball and other score cards and records, the students may measure their performances by standards which put upon each play a value recognized throughout the country, and make a college record as good in California as in New England! This is merely an application, by expert business ad- ministrators, of business principles to what many deem the lowest plane of the college life. Its undue promi- nence is almost wholly due to the fact that it is the only department where business principles, upon essentially 226 The Reorganization of Our Colleges the same system and in essentially the same detail, have been applied at the same time in practically every college in the country. This overwhelming success of business administration, in the only department of the college where it has been cooperatively, wisely and systemati- cally standardized and applied, ought to make the -col- lege authorities pause or, as their students would say, sit up and take notice. The phrase fits the case ex- actly. If strict business administrative methods, cooper- atively applied by outside experts, have upset the college economy and unduly exalted intercollegiate athletics at the expense of the pedagogical department, the college equilibrium can be restored only when it puts the same successful business methods, under competent experts, into force in all parts of the college. The same rules as to waste, loss of time and want of exactness apply in the college as in any other great ag- gregation of men and material resources working toward a common end. The college must realize this, and elaborate and use this great agency of forms and prec- edents, or else it must continue to waste its own time, money and efficiency, and those of its teachers, officers and students. (2) The reorganized college administration will thor- oughly appreciate that standardized and scientific meth- ods and precedents are not clogs and frills which ob- struct, but rather scientific working tools which increase administrative and executive, and hence productive, ef- fectiveness, and decrease the friction, expense and loss of time which are otherwise inevitable in large affairs; and that they tend to educate a corps of trained admin- The Use of Blank Forms 227 istrative experts available, like trained pedagogues, for in- stant use in any institution. But to-day, after 270 years of experience or lack of experience, there are no such comprehensive and standardized college administrative systems, like the bookkeeping, accounting and auditing systems of the business world, and no administrative ex- perts fitted to advise, introduce or conduct such systems in colleges. Our institutions, for many years, must seek help and guidance in this respect from the experts of the outside world. The colleges must bend their united energies until their administration and executive are not one whit behind their machinery that is, their peda- gogy but up to date, so that their chief in command can rely upon the information furnished him, as both complete and accurate; and, also, so that honest and efficient work may be done in all parts of the college. (3) This is not the time or place to tell what modern cost and accounting systems have done for our business concerns, nor to set forth the place which they have oc- cupied in modern reorganizations. A very few exam- ples will serve to show what these great instruments might do in a properly reorganized college. The accounting system of a railroad must audit and safeguard the company's cash and interests in the hands of thousands of agents and employees scattered, often singly, over an immense area. Yet it must also be able to tell what each link and branch of the road is doing; to analyze each detail, and charge it with its proper pro- portion of the general expenses, and define its particular profit or loss; to provide a means of comparing each de- tail with the past, and with similar details upon other 228 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges roads; and, by mere transcription of the totals of its several accounts, furnish the precise data for the various reports which each company must make to state offi- cials or the United States Interstate Commerce Commis- sion. Yet these uses of their accounting systems long since came to be regarded by the railroads as profitable and comparatively simple. But when railroad scandals, misdeeds and rebates called for a drastic and far-reaching remedy, it was found in an accounting system embodied in printed blanks; and a college professor was appointed to devise a set of rigid yet comprehensive reports to be furnished by each interstate railroad. These reports, calling for minutely detailed information under many headings, are to be the means through which the general govern- ment expects to prevent a recurrence of the evils com- plained of in the past. Furthermore, in their latest form, these reports are so designed as to enable investors and the public to know just what the railroads are earning, and hence what is the true and relative value of their securities, judged by an intelligible standard which ap- plies alike to every railroad doing an interstate business. Thus, through the employment, universally, of such a mere administrative detail as a uniform accounting sys- tem, the government proposes to protect not only itself and the public who use the railroads, but also those who deal with or own the most extensive form of investment securities in our country. Our railroads, while obeying the mandates of this law, will actually be benefited financially and otherwise by this wonderful advance in administrative methods, for The Use oj Blank Forms 229 the new system will force itself into every department of their organization and enforce better work therein, and thus improve the morale and consequent financial re- sults of every part and of the whole. In the past our railroads have often complained of and resisted the in- creasing expense entailed upon them by the more de- tailed reports constantly called for by governmental commissions; but the great trunk lines could not if they would, and would not if they could, go back to their administrative conditions of fifteen years ago, nor wipe out the splendid advantages which have come to them because they have been compelled to arrange their audit- ing and accounting departments so as to furnish the ex- act details called for by the government. These new^ accounting requirements have compelled them to ana- lyze sharply their own business, and compare it in all its details with similar details furnished by their compet- itors. Here is another illustration of the benefits that would flow to the colleges by the enforcement of a sys- tem which was practically universal in its use in insti- tutions of the same class. The same things are true of each successive improve- ment in the cost- accounting of a factory. It is not only a safeguard and record, but the philosopher, guide and friend of the captains of industry who are the executive officers of the concern. As a ready reckoner and chart, it multiplies the powers and value of the best men of the company, while it checks off their work as well. It enables them to pass over the minor matters to assist- ants, but furnishes exact data on which to decide the most momentous questions. At present one great fault 230 The Reorganization of Our Colleges of the colleges is that there is no way of checking off the production, that is, the professors' work. For many instructors have an antiquated idea that it is an insult to suggest that they need to have their work checked off. A distinguished professor once said: "For the presi- dent even to inquire as to the methods of my department is to express dissatisfaction. If he were entirely satis- fied he would not inquire. To inquire, therefore, is simply to offer me an insult." It is not difficult to see why there is so much jealousy in college in regard to administrative reforms. They are not under the charge of a separate and coordinate department of administrative experts, but under peda- gogical colleagues who are deputed to do some extra and much-needed administrative work. It is only hu- man nature that any proposed changes should bear rather harder on some instructors than on others; and hence be resented as the arrogance, interference or un- fairness proposed by a fellow-teacher. We must expect this feeling to hinder true progress until such time as we put the administrators in a separate department of their own, and give them real authority commensurate with the dignity and importance of their work. The attitude of the head of a great business concern is just the contrary to that of the college. He is constantly striving to put into effect new and improved administra- tive methods to check off the work of himself and of every other man in the business, that thereby each may do better work with less exertion. He will gladly pay a premium for any new plan by which he can measure up and improve his own work. The college financial de- The Use oj Blank Forms 231 partment sometimes provides a method of auditing the dollars and cents, but there is no college bureau that can furnish an audit of the days and hours of teachers and taught which must not be wasted, for the undergradu- ates will not pass that way again. Many of the alumni are eventually to become part of some great corporate or business system which has been made possible by rigid adherence to modern forms, blanks and accounting systems, and by the science and brains which make use of these as they do of any other improved modern machinery. There is nothing novel or unusual about such an idea. We are in constant touch with such methods. We have to do with a system of forms, blanks and accounts whenever we deal with a a public-service corporation, or a department store, or a great factory, or pay our taxes, or touch the affairs of any governmental agency. Why, then, should not the student citizens be better fitted for their life's work by intelligent contact with such agencies during their college course? As a matter of fact, then, college pedagogy is the only profession, dealing with large numbers of men and in active competition with other great institutions of the same kind, which has not appreciated the administra- tive, formative and scientific value of a modern stand- ardized system of forms, blanks, precedents and ac- counting. It and its students have paid dearly for its ignorance and blindness, but must now learn by ex- perience the true value and unlimited uses of these agencies. The reorganized college administrative and executive departments will make it the first task to revo- 232 The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges lutionize all this. So long as this simple yet extensively applicable agency is not comprehensively and intelli- gently used by our colleges, and the work of each and all their activities checked off, compared and standard- ized, we must expect to continue to get only the thirty per cent of possible results in training for citizenship which the colleges have so often given us. They will still continue to exhibit their lack of understanding of their own true aims and purposes, their incompetence to analyze their subjects, their lack of uniformity and comprehension in their treatment of their problems, their use of their best minds to do clerical work, and their inability to avoid future mistakes through studying and charting their earlier ones. The various places where proper and standardized blanks, forms and precedents, and accounting systems based thereon, will improve college results, will appear as we proceed, and not least in connection with the mark- ing system. Most forms can and should be constantly improved as often as experience and new conditions require changes. Hence the reorganized colleges must not be satisfied with what will seem sufficient in an earlier stage of their development, but must constantly look for and make improvements. They must print their forms and blanks in small editions to enable them to change them as frequently as they can profitably do so. Yet one dean writes: "Colleges are afraid of expense and will not print forms even at the request of a dean, for fear that they may not be used enough to pay or may be superseded next year by some- thing better!" The Use oj Blank Forms 233 Good business practice is quite the opposite to this, and changes and improvements are constantly made in each new edition of blanks. Nor must the colleges make a fetish out of any system of forms. At best it is only a means to an end, and they must not overelaborate it nor let it become their master to be slavishly followed. Moreover, a simple system, closely and wisely used, is far better than an elaborate one which is used in a perfunctory or slovenly manner. Above all, they must avoid degeneration into red tape or the use of any unnecessary detail whose advantage is not clearly seen. The elaborate reports of the railroads to the Interstate Commerce Commission would not be tolerated if the object of every detail was not clearly evident. Indeed, these forms have been prepared with the active cooperation of the accounting departments of the railroads with the Commission's experts. In other words, the colleges must remember that there are forms and forms, and that forms and blanks are in the nature of administrative expense saddled upon the producing forces, and therefore to be used as sparingly as possible. An institution should not take pride in a system of forms because it is elaborate, but rather in a system in which every form is indispensable because it is directed to some comprehensive and important end, or to furnish new units of value by means of which to demonstrate what every part of the work is doing, and thus to add to the efficiency of the whole in training for ennobling and efficient citizenship. An instructor writes: "It might be observed that most college professors detest 234 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges blanks, and that it is exceedingly difficult to get them to make good use of those they now have." This is partly because the present forms are of little value and lead nowhere, and partly because there is no coordinate and independent department in charge of the system. CHAPTER XIX STUDY AND CARE OF ITS PLANT BY THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE THE COLLEGE INVENTORY THE new administrative department will have the brains, experience and desire to make a full inventory and analysis of its plant, animate and inanimate, and of its capabilities, to the end that thereafter full value and results shall constantly be gotten out of the plant and each and every part thereof. An example from a modern reorganization will illus- trate how these things are not done in the colleges. Upon its incorporation, a certain trust took over about thirty mills of varying sizes and descriptions, situated in many different states, but all engaged in some branch of the same great industry. One of the first things done was to make an exhaustive study of each plant to ascertain what it comprised, how it could be simplified and im- proved, and then how it could be coordinated into the new great working whole. Many processes and much costly machinery were found to be duplicated. For ex- ample, each mill had disposed of its waste material upon its own plan or for its own purposes. This system was changed, and all the waste was shipped to one of four conveniently located plants especially reequipped to get the highest price for this waste at the least cost; and a further saving was effected by cutting out corresponding departments and processes in the twenty-six other mills. 235 236 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Furthermore, the new management found itself the owner of thirty mills, none of which could furnish a comprehensive inventory upon a given plan. Hence there was organized, upon a scientific basis, a new in- ventory-taking department, headed by a skilled super- intendent, who was given the necessary assistants and such local aids as were desirable. At the end of three years this department had paid for itself twenty times over by the vast amount of machinery, tools and parts which it had unearthed, listed, and made salable or available in the different mills. But this was one of the least important of its good results. It had provided an unerring chart for future work and improvements. For example, if the company wished to install a new ma- chine, costing $100,000, it could set it up in Mill A and thereby replace an $80,000 machine, which could be profitably put into Mill B. The $60,000 machine there displaced could be set up in Mill C, and so on down the line until the machine thrown out in Mill K was fit only for the scrap heap and all this by the aid of an inven- tory which was merely the scientific and complete record of an administrative bureau, yet which would be ac- cepted as a matter of course in such a reorganization. It is not too much to say that in this single department of one trust there was more scientific study of the con- cents plant, and a more complete record and use of what was thereby found, than have been made in a decade by all of our 850 colleges and universities, with their $300,- 000,000 of fixed plant and $300,000,000 of funded capital. The words of the eminent instructor quoted above, "Did you ever know folk who sang so many paeans to Study and Care oj the College Plant 237 themselves?" impress the candid observer of college catalogues and other official publications. The insti- tutions too often hold up certain ideal conditions as substantially realized in their own case, and they finally come to believe that these conditions are actually ideal and existent. Yet careful inquiry often demonstrates that in these very particulars the college is in a very bad shape. Recently an old and active alumnus trustee in a leading university complained bitterly to me of certain vicious tendencies which he claimed were rampant therein, although he had been fighting them constantly for many years. On the same day I received a letter from the president of the same institution expressing supreme satisfaction that these very evils had not ex- isted and could not exist therein. Both of these men are well known and widely honored, but either one or the other was not perfectly frank, or else the facts about important branches of the institution had not been prop- erly studied and made known, so as to furnish a com- mon ground for discussing them. It was undoubtedly an honest difference, but, from a business standpoint, an unnecessary one; and from the standpoint of the commonwealth and the undergraduate an unpardonable difference which could not have existed if an available and accurate annual inventory had revealed the real facts. The second annual report of the Carnegie Founda- tion (p. 37) says: "The catalogues of many colleges are prepared in such \ manner as to make it difficult to extract from them exact 1 and specific information concerning courses, entrance re- 238 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges quirements and facilities for work. There runs through most of these publications an optimistic view of the facilities and excellencies of the institution which goes far toward making these publications advertisements rather than sim- ple, straightforward accounts of those things which students and the public seek to know.'* A proper inventory shows what goods are shopworn or otherwise defective. Furthermore, goods are taken at cost and not at their selling or catalogue value. There has been too much tendency to take everything in a college at its catalogue and not at its true value educa- tionally. The college has no data such as a good in- ventory gives to the dealer or manufacturer, by which it can tell just what it has on its shelves. The nearest approach that any college has made to taking a full in- ventory was in the case of the Briggs Report, already referred to, made to the Harvard faculty in 1904. The conditions disclosed were certainly not edifying, but the spirit in which the investigation of a small part of the college work was made, and the frank and full report thereof published, was worthy of the best modern busi- ness practice and of being carefully followed by this and other institutions. So far as it went it was a splendid example of how a college may well take an account of stock, but it should be followed up and taken annually, ynot by one college but by many, and the results collated and compared. Otherwise one half of the true value and power for good of such work is lost. But very frequently a college president or professor resents it if you mildly suggest that there is nothing in our colleges of the nature of a modern high-class ad- ministrative department. The administration as an ad- Study and Care 0} the College Plant 239 junct to the other duties of the instructors, which we see in so many colleges, serves only to promote jealousy, becloud the issue, delay real reform and hinder peda- gogical results. If the head of such a system would spend a month going carefully over the details and ideals of the administrative bureaus of a great business cor- poration, his head would reel, but he would have some idea of what true administration means outside of our colleges and the great purposes, all good and helpful, which it serves. It would be better still if our college presidents and chief professors would spend their sab- batical years in their own country at the heart of a modern trust, and there learn how the least as well as the greatest things are checked off and accounted for; how many units there are besides those of the cash debits and credits of the concern; how every detail is watched and its record kept; how every department is set off against its fellow; how each day tells its tale to those that follow, and all march on to the end of the fiscal year and the final balance sheet. Then, and not till then, will our teaching force have some adequate no- tion of how pseudo administration can clog their work, and an up-to-date administrative department could transform a college and its ideals and net educational results, and restore its former high meaning to the term "college education." CHAPTER XX HOW THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE WILL STUDY ITS FIELD THE wise manufacturer or business man studies most carefully the field into which he must send his goods; or else he will soon become bankrupt. He must know about railroad and water freights, tariff and police regu- lations, internal revenue and pure-food rules, local leg- islation and habits, and scores of other details before determining how many and what manner of goods shall be produced. This often necessitates an extensive pri- vate bureau of information, supplemented by any fur- ther figures which can be gotten from the great govern- mental bureaus and commissions, and a "follow-up" system, and many other administrative agencies. But all this implies that the field constantly changes in some particular which must be as constantly watched and provided for in the economy of the business. This study of the field also requires a continual push into new fields, and if necessary the creation of new wants which shall be filled by new goods, or the making of new prod- ucts to replace more ancient or less efficient or more costly forms. Much has been written and is being written about the change of the college field from the earlier days when its graduates were fitted only for the ministry, law, 240 Studying the College Field 241 medicine or teaching, " the learned professions" to the present time when scores of courses can be pursued in our colleges and universities and technical, agricul- tural and normal schools. But this undoubted change calls for a correspondingly widespread and standardized study of the field, and its past, present and probable changes. One of the needed administrative reforms in most col- leges is a studying of their respective fields, to insure that their scrap-heap education shall fit its victims for some field, even if it does not go so far as actually to unfit them for any real service in future years; and then, if possible, to insure that there is some proper opportunity for each graduate. With a growing proportion of our college graduates it is no longer a question of square or round pegs to fit square or round holes, but of polygonic pegs to fit holes of the most intricate design. About fifty per cent of our undergraduates finally drift into business. What is here said shows how far the college methods and ideals of good work are often below those of first- class business; and how far, except under the professional coach, a college course may unfit a young man for his life's work, especially in business; and how little these four years may contain of real value to the student in finding himself and in training for efficient citizenship to offset the corresponding years of growth and indi- vidual training which his high-school fellows will have gained under the strict schooling of a modern business office. We must not lose sight of the dwarfing effects upon her undergraduates of Alma Mater's own failure to introduce and practice the best administrative meth- 242 The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges ods, including a careful survey of possible fields, and the accurate exhibition of these fields before her stu- dents, with every possible aid in assisting them to train in some one general direction. As a consequence a col- lege education is barred out in many establishments as an undesirable thing, while it has lost its pristine pre- eminence in the eyes of many parents. Far as the high-school education of to-day has ad- vanced beyond the three R's of the old " writing schools," so far also has the demand for well-trained college gr,ad- uates advanced beyond the older learned professions of ministry, medicine, teaching and law. There is a con- stant call for well-trained college men, but many fields are overcrowded with incompetents as well as com- petents ; and new fields must be incessantly watched for as they are being created every year. In business such a condition would cause the immediate organization and scientific equipment of a bureau, not only to study the field, but to lay the exact results before the produc- ing and selling staff, and profit by their advice which is founded on knowledge gained by actual service in the factory and the field. One well-known concern, whose market is among the farmers, annually gathers its sales- men together at its plant near New York, entertaining them and their families, and paying for a special train from the West. For certain hours each day a conven- tion is held at the factory, at which the company's op- portunities, capabilities and field are matched up and discussed, and during the rest of the time the company's guests are handsomely entertained at its expense. Tens of thousands of dollars are thus spent annually by one Studying the College Field 243 concern to make a market for a comparatively cheap machine. What a sorry contrast to such a study of its field do our college factories present with their output of the best youth of our land ! The college can never ap- proximate to doing its full duty to the state until it does all in its power, not only to fit men for lives of future use- fulness, but also to insure that its graduates find places where they can grow until they in turn are fully able to do their entire duty to the state. Our colleges may well take a leaf from the experience of their business competitors, and insure and take pride in the future successes of their alumni, and the reduc- tion of their own waste heaps to the smallest possible proportions. It is very well to have a theory of educa- tion which argues that some particular culture course or method must be better than any other; but it is far wiser to have an administrative department which shall study the college plant and its capabilities, and the fields which lie before its graduates, and at least at- tempt to whittle down its students approximately to the holes into which they are likely to be applied. Such a department and such a scientific utilitarianism would make our college teaching more rewarding and its re- sults more sure, and tend to restore college education and the reputation of the various institutions to some- thing like their former high level. At least it would shut the mouths of most critics who now rightfully find fault with college methods and results, and decry a "college education." Many of our medical courses have been extended to four years in addition to an A.B. degree, and as a result 244 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges our young men may not be able to commence their pro- fessional careers before they are twenty-seven or twenty- eight years of age. A year or two at this period of life is very valuable. No merchant who haggles over a commissioner discount of one sixteenth or one thirty- second of one per cent would think of wasting a year's time and salary of his best workmen. Yet while our universities properly keep on raising their professional requirements, they take no adequate steps to save a year or two of the productive lives of their students, by insuring that better work is done in earlier educational stages, so that a year or two may be saved at the end. It seems certain that Germany covers in twelve years just what our schools cover in fourteen, and does it better. But the investigation and remedying of such conditions belongs not to the pedagogical department but to the administrative. The latter must find out ways of doing good work in less time, and with less loss of time. CHAPTER XXI THE MARKING SYSTEM IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE IN "Individual Training in Our Colleges" 1 it was shown that in the earlier days marks were used solely to determine the relative rank of the students upon the commencement programme, and never to "bust out" of college; but that now the marking system survives as the sole test of college work, yet in the crudest possible form of a decimal or a, b, c, d, e plan. In none of my read- ing of early college histories, biographies or scrapbooks have I been able to find a single instance where a stu- dent was dismissed for poor scholarship so long as he was not morally delinquent. On the other hand, a little more than fifty years ago there came up in the Yale faculty the case of a student whose standing was so low in his studies that James Hadley, professor of Latin, and the father of the present president of Yale, desired him dropped from college. But a professor who had special charge of religious interests and led the stu- dents' prayer meetings said that he had observed the young man in these meetings, and had noticed that he seemed gifted in prayer, and that he believed that his influence over his fellow-students was good; and that therefore he hoped that he would be retained. By a narrow vote the student was allowed to remain in col- 1 Pp. 57, 185-188, 192, 193. 245 246 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges lege, but Professor Hadley remarked that he hoped that he would be given to understand that his position was "a precari-ous one." The valuelessness of the present college marking, or pedagogical, or administrative systems in giving a pro- fessor any acquaintance with his pupils, or in furnishing him with units of differing values by which to judge of the real results of his own work, is indicated by the fol- lowing extract from a letter from the treasurer of an important corporation in Boston: "I was lunching yesterday with a recent Harvard gradu- ate of high standing who told me that when some time ago he was asked for references to his professors he could give none, for not one of them knew him." It is not probable that such a young man would have spent four years with a good business concern without leaving some permanent record behind him. If some of the best technical schools can get a thorough knowledge of the strong and weak points of their students, and thus find positions to which each student is fitted, the colleges ought to be able to accomplish something like this for their graduates. Recently application was made to some well-known educators engaged in normal work for an improved marking form, adapted to aid alumni in supervising the work of undergraduates in whose course they were per- sonally interested ; that is, for a record which would have a definite meaning and value to some one besides the man who made it in his own blind hieroglyphics, which, even to him, have different values at different times and with different students. After several consultations the The Marking System 247 assurance was given that it was practically impossible to better the present decimal or a, b, c, d, e form. There- upon the layman, acquainted with business forms, de- vised the blank given below. Admittedly, under present college conditions, this form can be adopted only in ex- ceptional cases, but that merely demonstrates the faulti- ness of those conditions. Moreover, the blank would not have its true value for the college unless it was fitted into a general scheme and chart, and its results could be transcribed so as to check off the work of the class, teacher and department. This blank was originally prepared with the intention of aiding fraternity alumni who wished to give time and thought to the progress of undergraduates in whom they were interested, but at whose recitations they could not be present. It is offered merely as a suggestion upon which new marking systems might be based. It coincides with the ordinary decimal or a, b, c, d, e system only at the fourteenth heading: To PROF. : NOTE. It is with the full approval and co-operation of the stu- dent that you are requested to fill out this paper. He has a copy of this blank, and knows that he is to be marked by you, and as well by some of his fellow students who are with him in your class though he understands that he will not see the report. This system of grad- ing is part of an undertaking by which alumni friends of the student in question hope (a) that he will do better work in your subject, (b) that there will be a closer bond between preceptor and student; and that thereby information may be secured and recorded concerning his intellectual and moral characteristics which will be of value (c) in his future work in college, and (d) in giving him a start after leaving college. A duplicate is furnished for your own records. The following marking system is suggested, but any other, if ac- companied by explanation, may be used: A, 90 to 100; B, 80 to 89; C, 65 to 79; D, 1,0 to 64, E, below 50. Or with the same relative meanings respectively: High, Excellent, Fair, Passable, Failure. 248 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges We trust that you will not fail to tell the student frankly in what he is lacking or doing poor work. We will cordially join with you in improving his work in your department, and his general growth in intellectual and moral character. We will be pleased to receive, confidentially or otherwise, any suggestions as to how we may aid either yourself or the student, and trust you will appreciate that, in asking your co-operation, we are attempting to effectually supplement your own good efforts in the student's behalf; and also that you will not hesitate to disregard any subdivision which you feel that for any reason you cannot fill out to advantage. To aid us in advising him concerning his work in and after college, will you kindly, so far as you con- veniently can, give us your estimate of the ability, in comparison with college students in general, of Name College Class Subject Instructor Date of this report Is your subject one of general culture, or is it one likely to be of direct use to him in his expected life work? Interest in subject, as shown by (a) Punctuality. (b) Regularity of attendance. (c) Cuts. Attention in classroom. (a) Courteousness toward teacher. (b) Reading newspapers, listlessness, etc. Accuracy of mental action. (a) Grasp of main points of subject. (b) Grasp of finer distinctions of sub- ject. (Note especially mental slovenli- ness, inaccuracy or lack of definite understanding "of subject.) Accuracy of expression. (a) Oral (in recitations). (b) In written exercises. In subject pursued under you. In general. The Marking System 249 5. English. (a) Orthography. (b) Expression. (c) Range of vocabulary. (d) Chirography. (e) Neatness of written or blackboard exercises. 6. Perseverance (including thoroughness). (a) Determination to master obscure points. (b) Readiness to do extra work if nec- essary to master subject. (c) Interest in general reading and sidelights on subject. 7. Originality. (a) Ability to form independent judg- ment. (b) Ability to logically maintain same. (c) Ability and willingness to take ini- tiative among his fellow students (leadership). 8. Co-operative spirit. (a) With you. (b) With his fellow students. 9. Faithfulness (sense of responsibility). (a) With you. (b) With his fellow students. 10. As a student, does he learn (a) With difficulty. (b) With ordinary ease. (c) Quickly. 11. Is his memory (a) Poor. (b) Fair. (c) Superior. 12. Is his general work with you (a) Brilliant. (b) Excellent. (c) Ordinary. (d) Plodding. (e) Poor. 13. Does he, apparently, pass his examina- tions principally (a) By cramming. (b) On general work through the term. (c) By a combination of both. In subject pursued under you. In general. 250 The Reorganization of Our Colleges 14. Give his grade in work as marked and reported under the rules of your in- stitution. 15. In your opinion is his work unfavorably affected (a) By the state of his health. (b) By his habits. (c) By his social, athletic or other dis- tractions. (d) By his feeling that his work in your department is not relatively of major importance. (e) By inadequate preparation in this or other departments. (f) By any other conditions. 1 6. Please note (a) Improvement since last report. (b) Since first report. (c) Particular failings or faults (intel- lectual, moral or otherwise). (d) Strong characteristics (intellectual, moral or otherwise). (e) Suggestions. In subject pursued under you. In general. As already noted, such a blank as this would be faulty unless made a part of a complete system. The informa- tion here asked for could be much more easily given by a high-school teacher than by a college professor or lec- turer. Then why not have some such record follow a boy to college as well as through it ? In many factories a cost card accompanies a piece of machinery or other product throughout the whole process of its manufac- ture. Can we not do as much for our boys and their instructors to make their work more simple, scientific and effective? Under a separate administrative department it would not be difficult to have a large card or paper on which this information could be charted for the use of the ex- The Marking System 251 ecutive, administrative and instructional departments, and for those in the student life department who were attempting to insure that the young man found himself in college and that his training therein should develop one hundred per cent of the best stuff that was in him for efficient citizenship. This chart would also enable an earnest student to see himself through the eyes of his teachers, and would furnish a reference in future life such as is not now obtainable. With such a marking system there would be needed a " follow-up" plan which would be pretty closely mod- eled after those in use in an ordinary business office. In the reorganized college it will be presupposed that substantially all the students will complete their course; not that fifty per cent about the present average will fail to graduate. Hence a marking system will not be used chiefly to determine whether a student has "skinned through" on "soft culture" courses on a sixty per cent or D basis; else we shall soon seek a new head for our administrative department. From the dean of one institution I have received the following concerning a system of marks which is in force therein, and under which a degree may be obtained in less than four years: "It can be argued in favor of the system that it enables the bright student to graduate sooner than the dull student. But it is argued, and I believe effectively, that "(i) It enables and encourages the student to seek soft courses, so that it is the politician who gets out early, rather than the student with serious purpose. "(2) It enables scheming professors to trade in high grades and thus make their class rooms popular. [It would 252 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges not do for an outsider and a layman to suggest that this really occurs ! ] "(3) It draws the student's attention to marks rather than to the subject matter. "(4) The tendency is to encourage specialization in the line easiest for the student, rather than the broad scholarship and culture essential, especially in the early years of the course. "The members of the faculty are about equally divided, rather against than for." This statement indicates that the system in question has many good points, and that its bad points come from the failure to supervise and, from time to time, to correct the system by a separate administrative bureau. This is the weakness of many administrative reforms proposed by the pedagogic department. They do not go quite far enough ; they are not quite perfect from an administrative standpoint, and are not under a separate department which must produce good results or be marked a failure. Hence they do not work quite satis- factorily and therefore are unjustly condemned. An administrative system without power to enforce its be- hests and not backed by the sentiment of the establish- ment is largely ineffective. It is right here that most college experiments are inherently weak. A really comprehensive marking system ought to be one of the most important features of the course, for (a) it would enable the teacher to analyze and note, under standardized and comprehensive headings, the mental and moral characteristics of each student, so that the teacher could do the best work on and for him; (b) it would furnish a permanent and intelligible record for the use of each succeeding teacher, and (c) of the college The Marking System 253 waste heap or other bureaus, and (d) for future refer- ence in after-college days; (e) it would enable the student himself, and (/) those outside of the college who are fol- lowing his course and advising him therein, to have an intelligible record of his weak and strong points, which would go far toward getting better results out of his college course; and (g) it would help the administrative department to keep tab on the professor's work. This point can be made clearer by a story which a successful college president in the West delights to tell of himself. When a tutor he went to the president of the institution, and rather boastfully told how he had flunked out fifty per cent of his freshman class in mathematics. The president said to him in reply : " If I had hired you to drive one hundred sheep to Omaha, and you came back and boasted, in such a self-com- placent spirit, that you had lost fifty by the way, do you think that I would give you another hundred sheep to drive to Omaha next year? This present college year is not yet ended and another year is before us!" The younger man says that he dates his pedagogical educa- tion from that conversation, and from the chastening of his spirit which came from this practical application of business principles to college instruction and affairs. In other words, the marking system should be con- sidered in the light of an affirmative help in aiding a student to find himself and to train himself for efficient citizenship, rather than as a means of flunking him out of college, or even as a means to test his rank therein, or to frighten him into doing better work ; as an aid to the college in doing its duty to the state rather than a means 254 The Reorganization o) Our Colleges to reduce the numbers in a freshman class admitted with- out any proper selection or limitations, and which over- taxes the capacity of the institution. Admittedly, such a marking system as that outlined above cannot be successfully used under present college conditions, where each instructor has classes numbering from forty to a hundred. But pray what is there in the present college conditions, judged by their results and the size of the college waste heap, which would justify us in giving them much consideration? Present college administrative and student life methods must in large part be dropped and new ones substituted. In the re- organized college the ideals will be so changed, and the new marking system so necessary in enabling us to work out these ideals, that we shall willingly reduce our classes to twenty, fifteen or even ten if needed to bring out the best which is in the teacher and transmit it to the pupil under the most favorable conditions. We shall then be thinking of the student's future achieve- ments and not of his marks or diploma; of the reciprocal joy of teaching and being taught; of the fair fame of Alma Mater, and of her duty as a nourishing mother of forceful and completely equipped citizens; and we shall make every minor end bend to these greater ones even as we do now on the football field. The colleges and universities cannot hope to be real leaders of the com- monwealth while they are so far behind the great busi- ness corporations in ideals and methods, and while they take such pride in losing fifty per cent of their sheep on the way to the great market place where the country is waiting for them and needs them. The Marking System 255 If there is to be a revised and comprehensive marking system, let it also be used to promote a healthy rivalry within the college itself and between allied institutions in all parts of which a similar system shall be in force. Let such a method be used to demonstrate which de- partment is doing the best work for citizenship phys- ics or chemistry; the ancient or the modern languages; literature or history. Moreover, there are triangular or other leagues for intercollegiate athletics which are re- organized as the just and fair grouping of institutions which have about the same local surroundings and about the same number of students. These natural rivals might well compete on higher intellectual and educational levels, and generously collaborate over their common problems of the college marking system and waste pile, and of administrative methods and results. But if this is to be at all successful, these matters in which there is rivalry must be largely standardized. Football and other intercollegiate athletic contests are possible upon a large scale only because they take place under absolutely identical rules, under which there can be true rivalry, yet full play for individuality. This en- lightened rivalry and competition would make all work, within and without the college walls, more interesting and inspiring. Fair and intelligent competition is the life, not only of trade, but of a popular education for all, such as we are attempting to give in this country. But fair competition implies similar standards of measure- ment. Hence the educational and administrative de- partments of our reorganized colleges will seek for the true standardizing of their marking and other systems 256 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges of measurement, so that there may be, not only compe- tition, but intelligent and uplifting correlation and com- parison. The new marking system, if thoroughly understood by the pupil, ought to develop in him that quality and sense which the good teacher so longs for and seeks to inspire the sense of individual and personal responsi- bility in the pupil, which attunes him to the soul of the instructor and breeds eagerness to learn; which inspires teacher and taught, turns the task into a pleasure, fos- ters true culture and scholarship, gives real individual training and fits for the largest usefulness in the future. This is the training for life which the college should aim at. In so far as it does not give it, it fails in its duty to the state and to the individual. But, dear pedagogue, you will never fully reach this goal until you turn your two dead departments of ad- ministration and student life over to other hands and give your attention to pure pedagogy. Unload all these extraneous things and commit them to the care of ex- perts in those lines; avail yourself of the experience of your business alumni, and devote yourself, as never be- fore, to your own specialty in which you can never yet have done your best work ; for never yet have you had the benefit of the trained "interference" of a well-con- ducted and coordinate college administrative depart- ment and the help of a well-ordered student life. Pray that that time may soon come, and hasten it on in every way. Do not oppose it, but rather demand it as your right, and as something to which you are entitled under modern business methods, which have as their one The Marking System 257 great object that the producers shall be provided with the best available material, machinery and service sur- roundings, to the end that they may turn out the very best possible work not in quantity so much as in quality of which they as individuals are capable. Have you never dreamed of what heights of accomplish- ment in acquiring and imparting knowledge you could reach under the most favorable circumstances, or of what good original work you were capable? It will be a long and weary task to undo all past mistakes and make real progress on the new road, and possibly you are too old to see ideal conditions prevail in your own day; but for the sake of the rising generations of teachers and taught, do what you can to inaugurate and set for- ward this auspicious change. You have been the vic- tim of a vicious system or lack of system. Help to cut the Gordian knot for your successors. You cannot do so more effectively than by the formulation and wide and intelligent adoption of a standardized and modern mark- ing system which will give a few of the advantages of the cost system found in every up-to-date factory. CHAPTER XXII STUDYING THE COLLEGE WASTE HEAP MANY business alumni would like nothing better than the time and opportunity to work over and study our college waste heaps, both so far as they relate to the losses among students and teachers. It would be a delicate task, requiring the greatest tact and wisdom. In the new administrative department, the waste- heap bureau will be the place of highest honor and of surest reward. College methods have often been so crass and un- scientific that sometimes their student waste heaps about equal in size their so-called finished product; and fifty per cent of this latter would be scrapped in a well-run factory not stamped with its trade name and sent out as a fair sample of its finished product. Surely the col- leges ought to have some ideals in the treatment of their waste heap and by-products, which would approach to an approximation of those of thousands of business cor- porations of our land. The Standard Oil Company could teach the colleges hundreds of points in which they could improve their administration, and especially how they could study and reduce their waste products. Nothing could seem more unpromising than crude pe- troleum, yet under proper study and the supervision of 258 Studying the College Waste Heap 259 an administrative department it has been made to yield more than 200 by-products. One large manufacturing concern has a magnificently organized corps of 150 chemists who daily collaborate and compare their work upon by-products and new products. On the students 7 side the college waste pile is made up, in a broad sense, of those men who have not gotten all of the training and development, mental, moral and physical, of an education for citizenship which the in- stitution might and should have given them; who have fallen short of what they had the ability to become, judged not by the present college marking system, but by the larger test of their fitness for the best life's work for which they might have been trained. It is a sad commentary on some college authorities that they will think this a harsh and impossible rule to apply in their factory, but it is a just rule which is sternly enforced in every other great factory. When the administrative and student life departments have been resurrected and restored to their proper places in the college economy, the present objectors will be the first to acknowledge their mistake, to admit that they could not have ex- pected to do their best work as instructors under present conditions, and much less in addition to do well the work of two other coordinate but essentially dis- tinct college departments, which were ready and anxious to do their part, if the instructors would but consider the matter in a common-sense way and not attempt to do their own and the others' share. But in a much narrower and less true sense, the col- 26o The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges lege waste pile is in part made up of those students who have not completed their college course, or who have made a self-evident failure in their life's work because of unfortunate conditions in college. It begs the question to say that these men are better for having had some taste of a college life even if they did not finish their course. This may or may not be true. They might have profited quite as much if this time had been spent elsewhere. The real question is, Did the college do its full duty for citizenship upon these men, and fully exert upon them the power to that end which the commonwealth, the parents, the students and the community had a right to demand of so richly endowed a public servant? Shall we insist that our street railroads shall give transfers and mulct them heavily for not doing so, and not demand an equally punctilious fulfillment by the colleges of their far higher duties? It has been said that a well-to-do college-educated man represents a direct and indirect cash investment of about $25,000 before he is able to support himself. What an upheaval, investigation and reform there would be in a well-ordered factory if but a few $25 machines produced by it were failures, and would not work satis- factorily, and were returned by dissatisfied customers. Yet apparently no college has thought of intelligently studying its $25,000 failures, or even of introducing a comprehensive set of blanks or marking system which would lay the foundation for such a study. Many in- stitutions graduate only fifty per cent of those who enter. The careful manufacturer would say that such a loss Studying the College Waste Heap 261 must be charged either to the productive or the admin- istrative department. There can be no doubt as to where this loss must now be charged in the colleges for as yet they have no separate administrative depart- ment. Hence the loss must be charged directly to that department which still insists upon exercising and con- trolling the administrative functions of the institution. Pedagogic administration is chargeable with a pretty heavy loss when it delivers in a completed state only fifty per cent of the splendid raw material annually com- mitted to its care, and much of this fifty per cent is not in the best marketable condition! To the college waste heap must also be added every tutor and professor whose earlier high ideals and prom- ise for original research and fruitful teaching have been killed out by the drudgery and misapprehension en- tailed by a lack of an up-to-date administrative depart- ment. The misfit teachers, who could have done fine work under different surroundings, must also swell the pile; and possibly also the alumni who could and would have done good work for Alma Mater if she had had a wise administrative department, which had charted all her weak spots and was looking for the right man with whom to strengthen them. A proper study of the college waste pile would pro- vide for working over the past, not so much with the hope of rescuing much available material, but rather to obtain data for future guidance and to enable us to analyze and minimize our future failures. But our best results must come from present work on present ma- terial, along wise and far-reaching lines, trusting that 262 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges each year these lines will broaden before us. If each year does not show better methods, higher ideals and a smaller waste heap than ever before a larger per- centage of the sheep delivered at market, and in a better condition for that particular market at that particular time we may rest assured that our study is upon wrong lines or with the wrong human agents, and that there must be a change; for good results always follow a proper study of waste heaps and by-products. An earnest endeavor to redeem the waste of a busi- ness necessarily implies a careful scrutiny of every part of that business and a willingness to follow where such quest legitimately leads. Therefore we shall, first, sub- mit our entering material to a careful test, and constantly seek to improve its character before we undertake to treat it; second, unceasingly and sternly test and im- prove our own subsequent methods with and treatment of that material; third, bend every energy to make sure that all external and internal agencies work to the good of our students, fostering those which are advantageous and counteracting those which are adverse; fourth, keep a comprehensive record and marking system of every student and of all the larger and smaller details of the college, and constantly compare and use these; and, fifth, so far as possible, insure that our graduates "catch on" after college, and have a fair opportunity to make the best use of the training which we have given them. We shall aim to know whether the cause of a failure lies in the parents' home, or the earlier schooling or the college; and if in the latter, in which of its planes or Studying the College Waste Heap 263 courses. This knowledge must become more and more precise each year as we study and classify our waste heap, and the methods of the colleges must be stand- ardized so that this studying may be fruitful of results. There is enough in this programme to engage the at- tention of the most important bureau in the new admin- istrative department, which must be headed by the best men, and be given every means necessary to apply and test its rules. We shall soon come to value our great institutions, not so much by their buildings, or the amount of their funds, or by their past good work and reputation, or by their size, or by the number of their courses or electives, as by the relative smallness of their waste piles; by their ad- mitted failures rather than by their presumed successes on the diploma basis. And let us trust that in the future there may be set up some governmental bureau or agency, with power to re- quire each institution of higher learning to submit item- ized annual reports, thoroughly standardized and of the most searching and comprehensive character, whereby parents and students and the public may judge of the relative merits of the various institutions and the size of their waste heaps; and whereby the institutions them- selves may check off, compare and constantly and in- telligently improve their own methods and results. If the United States Department of Education were au- thorized to require of the colleges one-tenth part of the detailed information which the Division of Statistics and Accounts of the Interstate Commerce Commission de- mands of the railroads, it would soon work a revolution 264 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges in college methods, and make the waste pile almost a negligible quantity; and at the end of a decade everyone would be amazed at the improved condition of educa- tion throughout the country, and no one would be will- ing to do away with the new methods and requirements or go back to the old. If the Interstate Commerce Com- mission can require the railroads to spend annually millions of dollars, to the end that their exact physical and financial conditions and results can be accurately exhibited before those who are interested to know about these things, why should we not at least strive toward some such goal with regard to the college youth of our land? Why should not the general government and the states and municipalities, which have given and are giving, directly and indirectly, such enormous endowments, subsidies and special privileges to these favored public servants, and which are spending annually such huge amounts in preparing students for the colleges without expense to the latter, demand a strict annual accounting in standardized forms of reports which the wayfaring man, though only the father of a college undergraduate, may read? Why should not such privileged public servants eagerly demand that they shall be given the opportunity to prove their leadership in all which tends for the good of the commonwealth, by being required to make a more comprehensive and comprehensible annual report than any other public corporation? When such a time arrives, a college education will be of greater economic value because it will mean more to all con- cerned. Studying the College Waste Heap 265 The tests and methods applied to our great railroads ought not to be too good to be applied to our colleges, which are presumed to be training our future citizens and problem solvers, and which may and must mold the course of our future history. Certainly we ought not to be too proud to go to experienced railroad and corpo- rate reorganizes, many of whom are college men, for help in solving the administrative problems of our col- leges and in reducing their waste piles. Possibly the learned professor of economics, who is in charge of the statistics and accounts of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, could point out the value to our colleges of an exhaustive charting of their mistakes and shortcomings by means of a proper system of accounts, and could at least assist in the preparation of such a set of blanks, and could do as good work in standardizing college methods as he has in railroading. CHAPTER XXIII EXAMINATIONS IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE THE ordinary college examinations have degenerated into senseless adjuncts to an archaic marking system, where they serve as a bugaboo and measuring rod. A higher use is set out in the following quotation from Dr. Canfield's report, already referred to: " There seems to be a clear understanding, in both Eng- land and France, that an examination should test both the acquisition of knowledge and the ability to use knowledge; or both knowledge and power. To these two characteris- tics many instructors add a third promise. It is very gen- erally admitted that the first characteristic predominates, if it does not dominate, the work of pupils up to sixteen years of age; that the second is increasingly recognized through the years of college life; and that the third leads in all graduate work. It is also clearly understood that every examination will show something of each quality, and that every examination is quite as much a test of the teacher as of the pupil or student. With much lamentation it is quite freely admitted that few examinations establish much, if any, test of either power or promise, but are perfunctory and mechanical tests of acquisition of knowledge, of the existence of knowledge, of mere memory; and that the reason for this is to be found in the indolence and ignorance of instructors, both those of the college and university and of the secondary school: ignorance, because so few instructors are willing to make any study of methods, of any part of either the history or psychology of education; indolence, because it is so much easier to use old formulas than to study the boy and his work, and set an examination the result of which will really 266 Examinations 267 add to the teacher's knowledge of both, and be a stimulus to the pupil in all future endeavor. "For every examination either stimulates or stultifies; the intellect is either better or worse because of what it has en- countered; either the whole man has been quickened into new life by what ought to be a sudden and unexpected emergency which the student must meet and master, or he has become more sodden and helpless because of renewed manifestations of lifelessness on the part of the instructor. Because of this very positive power for either good or evil, the examination should be most carefully studied, most thor- oughly understood, and above all most wisely and thoroughly supervised. . . . Sooner or later, every man must face an emergency, must meet a crisis which, swift and unexpected in its coming, calls for sharp concentration of all his faculties and powers, for supreme and continuous effort till the victory is won. Examinations which are without notice, and which do not come at stated intervals, train men in this mental self-control and alertness, in this swift marshalling of all forces, with an irresistible forward movement, a rush to the front of horse, foot and field guns. With such examinations, stimulating in the highest degree, a true master in educa- tion, if not overburdened with students, can determine the success of his students without formal 'finals' or any me- chanical gage." Dean R. C. Bentley, of Clark College, says of exam- inations in connection with the marking system: "A single illustration will show the ridiculous inade- quacy of our present 'marking,' even to distinguish types of mind not to say individual powers. If the college has a right to demand anything in student mind, it is the stage at which some thinking of a mature sort may be expected. The demands of college studentship may not be considered to be satisfied with anything less than an assimilation by which there may be exhibited actual mental energy, generated by one's own mental machinery. Shall we be surprised to find that a high mark is used to represent the brilliant work of a superficial man? There is too likely to be a high mark 268 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges of approval for the student who returns intact, upon exam- ination, just what he got from his instructor. Oh for a race of teachers free to say: 'Thou unprofitable miser of the scraps of others' ready made wisdom, preserved in the folded napkin of a complacent mind against examination day; thou oughtest to have so invested as to show at least the legal rate of interest ! ' "Any machinery of marks that makes it unnecessary for a teacher, as the most important part of his functions, to dis- tinguish, not only such two types of mind, but individual differences of mind, decreases his chance to do real teaching and loads the balances for false weighing." Examinations in their present sense and use may even disappear in our reorganized college because they will be as unnecessary and useless as in the case of the faith- ful clerk in a business office. If through an ideal col- lege administrative system a close touch between master and pupil can be established, promotion will come from faithful work, not from cramming and cribbing. Im- proved instruction will contribute a small fraction to- ward this result, but improved administration the major part, because it will make instruction more effective and rewarding. Final examinations will come to be recog- nized as an undesirable evil, not as a necessary end, and will be dispensed with so far as possible. If they are used at all, it will be rather as a climax for the pupil but as a test for the teacher, in which both teacher and taught will be equally interested in ascertaining if the pupil has made good. Everyone knows that the final football games are a test for the coach and his methods and work, but the climax of the season for the players. The coach is paid for his services, but the team, with no pecuniary reward, work toward the great climax for Examinations 269 Alma Mater's glory. The coach is not trying to see what low marks he can award for slovenly term work, to be supplemented by cramming and a final examina- tion, but rather is striving to teach the fine points of the game, even to the scrub, so that at the end there may be no failure. The reorganized college will have this same spirit, for it is the spirit of a well-organized office or business. There the test is not that of a lying marking system supplemented by more unreliable examinations, but that of a general and actual growth of the individual, so as to rise to higher and higher planes and cope suc- cessfully with greater and greater responsibilities. CHAPTER XXIV DISCIPLINE IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE DISCIPLINE, according to the notions of the earlier college, has substantially disappeared in modern times. Disorder in the class room is now practically unknown and would be entirely so if the classes were of the proper size. Any attempt to regulate the manners and habits of the college home has to all intents and purposes been abandoned in our quasi state. It is now the office of our colleges to train their students in their duties as citizens, and to teach them to govern themselves, as al- ready indicated. Under a well-conducted college administrative de- partment, disciplinary measures will become a negligible quantity. The distinction between instruction and the college home life will be clearly thought out and main- tained. Any disorders in the class room will be almost unthinkable, while those in the student life will be dealt with under rules which apply to that department, and not to the pedagogical and administrative departments. The rules governing conduct in the instructional de- partment will be few, well advertised and clearly under- stood, with well-defined penalties. The punishment will be made to fit the crime. At present college discipline reminds one forcibly of the story told by the head master of one of our great 270 Discipline 271 preparatory schools. A small boy had been called be- fore him and, under strict cross-examination, was grad- ually disclosing a fearful laxity of discipline and dearth of good work in one of the houses, until finally the little fellow blubbered out: " But how was I to know that the teacher would draw the line at my dropping a live mouse down the back of his neck?" Nowadays college discipline is frequently, for months or years, more honored in the breach than in the ob- servance, and then suddenly the faculty find it neces- sary to save their face by making an example of some particular student who has been doing that which the faculty has winked at in numerous other instances. They arbitrarily draw the line at the live mouse. Oftentimes the general tone of a college is poor and the discipline lax, until the students come to feel, quite naturally, that they have a kind of preemptive right in their privileges which have existed from time imme- morial, or in an ordinary college for over four years. Suddenly, without warning, the autocratic power of the college is invoked, and a custom arbitrarily swept aside which had seemed to the students to be among their vested rights. This course engenders a spirit of anger and revolt. A small amount of forethought in dis- cussing matters with the undergraduates would have brought almost a cheerful acquiescence upon the part of the student body. Conditions which appear easy in business are often considered as oppressive in college, because therein they are autocratically imposed and enforced by the institution instead of being assumed by the student body, as might be easily brought about. 272 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges A lawyer appreciates that human justice is very hu- man, and a thoughtful observer sometimes feels that this is truest of college justice. A wise and proper ad- ministrative department will practically eliminate all need of discipline and not glory in the sudden revival of dead-letter laws or the enactment of blue laws, ap- plied " steady by jerks." Fair notice will be given of change of rules and regu- lations, and the earnest cooperation of the students will be insured through a full realization of plans and pur- poses, and by the concurrent effort of dominant influ- ences among the students that is, in the student life department. Student sentiment is justly outraged by many cases of flagrant injustice, such as is set forth in the following letter from a well-known New York lawyer: "I have a son just graduated from college. He was de- barred from strenuous athletics by his physique. He is a good student, above the average, for he passed the best entrance examination of all applicants in 1903, and yet, so far as I can judge, he is not thought of as he would be if he had high athletic standing either by the institution or his college mates. He was not individualized but simply one of a mass, and taught, marked, heard and considered as such. I do not mean to be understood as complaining be- cause he is my son. I refer to him simply as a case fit for illustration, because it is the one I know of. My son did not take honors on graduation, because it is almost too absurd to be credible in the sophomore year, although he had nearly all A's and only one or two B's in his subjects, he had F in Gymnastics, and he received F because he had overcut two half hours at the gymnasium. He did not know it, was not notified, and hence did not make them up, as he easily could have done. His class was the first when overcuts in Gym. were considered as data in making Discipline 273 up honors. So his honors were gone irretrievably, for, no matter how high his marks would have been in Junior and Senior years, he could not get Final Honors. His ambitio is were, therefore, blunted; and he lost his incentive. It seemed and still seems unjust to him and a reflection on the college system." This is an example of the vices of the autocratic system of the college, which has many of the faults of any auto- cratic regime. It has the student largely in its power, for he has made his investment of tuition, and furniture, and time spent along its fixed curriculum, which prob- ably will not be applicable in another institution and hence will be wasted if he withdraws. The college knows its power, and often uses it foolishly and un- fairly. Under like circumstances no merchant would say to a clerk who had made some foolish, and probably boyish and pardonable, error: "You are in my power, for I have such a hold upon you that you must submit when I fine you two months' pay, or decree that you must work without extra pay three hours overtime every day for three months." On the contrary, the mer- chant says: "You are of full age and understanding. Either fill your position to the very best of your ability and work for the general good, or resign." No ship ever yawed more than does college pedagogy when it essays to steer the discipline of a modern institution of higher learning. Faculty control of discipline in our modern institutions is inherently wrong and certain to be a snare and a failure. It entirely lacks the per- sonal acquaintance with general and individual condi- tions which made faculty control partially successful in earlier days. 274 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Undoubtedly, the college has certain rights and powers over its students, but they are far less than in the old boarding-school colleges, and are to be exercised in far different manner and spirit and to a far different end. But the student also has his rights which his pred- ecessors did not have, and which should be respected by the college, not in a perfunctory, haphazard way, as where he is at the mercy of some cross-grained or prej- udiced professor who can cost him "his incentive" and leave a bitter feeling of injustice which never ceases to rankle in his breast. Many a time we hear college graduates tell of what they feel was a gross injustice done to them years before by some professor. In such instances there should have been some administrative power guarding Alma Mater's good name and work, which could deal out even-handed and intelligent jus- tice, or, if necessary, separate two uncongenial individ- uals who never could or would get on together. The separate administrative department will do away with all star-chamber methods. It will reverse the Puritanical notion that discipline of the young is for punishment, and will adopt the modern idea that it is for reform and moral growth. College discipline must necessarily be very faulty until our colleges, and es- pecially the student life department, are properly re- organized, and then it will practically disappear. CHAPTER XXV THE WAITING LIST IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE IN at least some reorganized colleges there will be a waiting list, for all college history proves that good work in any institution draws to it plenty and often too much of the best student material; just as truly as suc- cessful intercollegiate athletics draw driftwood, which seldom remains more than a year or two, and which serves merely to clog and disarrange the machinery for earnest students, and thus causes deterioration in the in- stitution's plant, product and reputation. Students and parents recognize good work in a college. They are not afraid of fair restrictions or of high requirements. They are looking for individual training and broad prepara- tion for citizenship, and the college which gives the most and best of these will draw the largest number of the highest grade students. This plan has never yet been thoroughly tested, which is another indication of the comparatively low level of our college ideals. The waiting list will consist in part of those who are registered years ahead; and in these cases the college will have an opportunity from year to year to know what kind of preparatory work each applicant is doing, and by that means assist, not only themselves and the sub- 275 276 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges freshmen, but also the preparatory schools in getting good work out of their students. The administrative department will have time to watch carefully such can- didates and their yearly progress, and to select the best material and that which is especially adapted to the instruction of that institution. In part the waiting list will consist of those who have been found wanting upon their entrance examinations and who are sent back for better preparation. The reorganized college will be for honest work, with a well-selected and pretty evenly matched lot of students, all thoroughly prepared, and not dragging on for four years some condition which un- fits both professor and student for getting the best re- sults out of the college course. A waiting list will be an eye-opener to both college and preparatory school and bring them closer together upon a common-sense under- standing of the sphere of each. Meanwhile the sub- freshman is between the upper and the nether mill- stones to an extent which would seem to a merchant or manufacturer to be not only unnecessary but scandalous. Furthermore, a waiting list might be a good vantage ground from which to study the waste pile of both col- lege and preparatory school. Under the proposed reorganization most institutions will have to cut down their entering classes from twenty-five to forty per cent, but they will graduate as many as they do now. There is to-day no fair test of the real capacity and efficiency of our institutions of higher learning. The nearest approximation to such a test is the size of their graduating classes, and not that of their entering classes. Yet the colleges always brag The Waiting List 277 about large entering classes. They are the only great factory system with the perverted notion that an over- supply of raw material and a correspondingly large waste pile are a true test of the concern's greatness. They are the only place where the owners consider and boast of the number of sheep which start for market, and not of the number or condition of those which reach there. This falling off in the number of entering freshmen will at first appear to some unthinking alumni to be a sign of decadence, but they will be less likely to feel thus when they understand that there is an insistent waiting list, for this will indicate that the institution is held in even higher esteem than before, and thus the allegiance of the alumni will be retained and possibly their enthusiastic support be gained. There are thousands of parents to whom a waiting list would appeal, yet who cannot understand why a college should consider a large "busted out" list as any evidence of good work upon its part, or any reason why they should risk the future of their sons in that institu- tion. It would be far better if there was much more discrimination of this kind upon the part of parents, and if they combined to resist the tendency of the colleges to visit their own shortcomings upon the innocent un- dergraduate and future citizen. Furthermore, the fact that many of the men thus "busted out" go from college into business positions, and, under the strict and wise rules there prevailing, make successes, will suggest to the thoughtless and in- nocent that many colleges ought to jack their adminis- 278 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges trative methods and ideals up to the plane of the de- spised trusts and soulless corporations. This pride in a large "busted-out" list is sometimes taken to imply that the college has so high an educa- tional standard that many men cannot rise to the level which the college maintains in its curriculum. Yet we find that many of those who ultimately fail were the most promising students in the high schools from which they entered, and that they have failed because of the perverted conditions prevailing in the community and home life of the college student body. Under these cir- cumstances how can the institution fully perform its chief duty to the commonwealth of turning out good citizens and at the same time have a large "busted out" list? 1 Frequently freshmen are dropped from college be- cause their instructors are poor, and their classes too large, and other pedagogical conditions are thoroughly bad; and then the college plumes itself upon "its high standard of scholarship!" It might better say "its gross inefficiency and hypocrisy, and its fraud upon the commonwealth, the parents and the students." In connection with the waiting list would come up the whole question of who is to be admitted to the privileges of this quasi public corporation, to be trained therein for citizenship. The present prescribed entrance ex- aminations imperfectly cover a single side of but one of the many things which a college should know before it takes the risk of spoiling a young man's life, or of wast- ing its own time and disarranging its own machinery by 1 "Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 182, 183. The Waiting List 279 taking in an improper student. The present system of uniform entrance examinations much resembles the equally well-known system of ready-made clothing well adapted to the physical average of the human male or female, and nothing more. An ordinary ready- made garment is not adapted for the use of both sexes, nor does it fit those who are abnormally lean or fat, tall or short, or otherwise out of the average. Moreover, the fit of the garment gives us no criterion by which we may judge as to whether it comes within the means or the needs of the buyer. The sixty-dollar dress suit can- not be made to take the place of the laborer's two- dollar overalls and jumper. Unless distance or other conditions make it impossible, each candidate for en- trance to college should be personally examined by some wise and sympathetic member of the administra- tion, to ascertain whether he is likely to find himself and become a hundred per cent citizen in that institution rather than in some other, or whether he ought, upon any terms, to enter that college. In seven cases out of ten those things should be known long before the stu- dent enters, not after. CHAPTER XXVI ADVERTISING AND THE PUBLICITY BUREAU IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE IF anyone doubts that the colleges are no longer schools based on the home, let him look at their adver- tising bureaus. If he still doubts that the colleges need reorganization, let him look at the manner in which some of them, especially in the past, have allowed these bureaus to prostitute the higher aims of the colleges themselves, to lower their public sentiment, debauch their homes, and pervert the future citizens who were being trained by this great public agency. Let him see how, too often, the advertising has changed position with the institution, and arrogated to itself the promi- nence which the institution had formerly and rightfully claimed as its own. In recent years, intercollegiate athletics have become primarily, and more than any- thing else, the great advertising medium of the Ameri- can college, and nothing like them exists in any other part of the world. They are the most spectacular col- lege product of the last twenty-five years of the nine- teenth century, and they have had their splendid uses In the absence of a separate college administrative de- partment, they have at a pretty heavy price turned us completely away from our old ideas of the round- shouldered, narrow-chested college student and his mid- 280 Advertising and the Publicity Bureau 281 night (whale-oil) lamp. They have taught us to appre- ciate the value of physique and physical training, which we were likely to have forgotten in modern times. From the colleges this appreciation has spread to the whole body of youth throughout our land. But in doing this, and unnecessarily, and largely because they had no adequate, up-to-date administrative department, the colleges have substituted for their own former scholarly ideals those of the champion athlete and trainer ; and in too many instances they have actually sacrificed men who had in them the material for fine citizens. The net result may be best illustrated by a similar transition, but in the opposite direction. Not many years ago in a well-known reformatory it was found that, despite the most strenuous efforts, the moral ten- dency of the institution was thoroughly bad, and that instead of reforming its inmates it was steadily debasing them. This was because their greatest criminal was the boy hero of the majority of the inmates. That is to say, when a young man and first offender was com- mitted to the so-called reformatory, he was, under proc- ess of law of the commonwealth, put into an atmos- phere dominated by the notion that crime was not criminal if it was only sufficiently daring and successful. Some wise young college-bred men of the neighborhood felt that the thing to do was to change this boyish ideal. Accordingly, they started Sunday afternoon exercises which were given a high-sounding name, suggestive of ethics, sociology, etc. The very purpose of the move- ment would have been frustrated by calling it or making it a Sabbath school. The meetings were made exceed- 282 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges ingly interesting, and gradually the boys were encour- aged to debate, write papers, and finally to publish a weekly journal. Undoubtedly, the ideas therein pro- mulgated were crude and crudely expressed, but the object sought was attained; for it shortly came about that the best debater and the best writer, the one who could express himself most forcefully by tongue or pen, became the hero of the inmates. By this wise but indirect course the ideals of the majority of the prisoners were com- pletely changed, and by wise use of this change in ideals the institution was enabled to become a real re- formatory instead of a place to make bad matters worse. The colleges have adopted about the same plan, but in the opposite direction and with opposite results. Ap- parently the hero of the college is its star athlete. 1 Nowadays when the undergraduates wish to induce subfreshmen to join their institution, they expatiate, not upon the president's preeminence, nor upon the scholarly attainment of the professors, nor upon the splendid fit for their future work as citizens which is given to the undergraduates, but upon the success of the athletic teams and the prowess of the coach and trainer. Until very recently, and in some cases even yet, all kinds of inducements, scholarships and pay- ments were held out, directly or indirectly, on behalf of the colleges to induce likely prep-school athletes to go to a redoubtable institution of intercollegiate athletics rather than to a notable institution of higher learning The colleges have had their reward! Their numbers and their wealth have increased beyond all their earlier > " Individual Training in Our Colleges," Chap. XXIV. Advertising and the Publicity Bureau 283 dreams. The colleges have had their advertising but they have reaped the whirlwind. They have too often discredited their own higher aims by their disgraceful, dishonorable and dishonest use of what might have been proper means of physical exercise and of arousing college pride; and have too often unfitted their most promising students for splendid, fruitful citizenship in their after lives. They have overstimulated and over- developed their community life at the expense of their pedagogy and homes. The notion of a publicity bureau is much more generic and far-reaching than that of an advertising bureau. The latter is associated in our minds with the sale of goods or other direct monetary transactions. The former is far more comprehensive in its meaning and uses, for it applies to many things which have no relation to pecuniary affairs. By publicity, as its very name implies, is meant the making public or giving public currency to some information or report which otherwise would be unknown to those who should know of it. Publishing and publicity are more nearly synonymous than advertising and publicity. It is publicity when the state or any subdivision thereof publishes its laws or ordinances, or the annual or other reports of its officers, boards or commissioners. All of the bulletins published by the various departments at Washington are merely the products of the vast pub- licity system which the United States Government has developed more scientifically and beneficently than any other. The catalogue of a great library or university is a part of its publicity plan, and necessary to make its 284 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges opportunities for good available in the widest way. It is in this broad sense that the word "publicity" is used here. The new and separate administrative department will not fail to have its carefully organized and efficient pub- licity bureau which will insure that its objects, regula- tions and proposed changes are fully made known, in an authoritative and intelligent way, to college authorities, alumni, students and parents, and to all others entitled to know what it is attempting to do; to the end that all factors in its new problems shall intelligently cooperate in their solution. This publicity bureau will serve to enlighten and to increase the interest of its own teachers and pupils, as well as of those without the college walls. In many factories there are posted every day in each de- partment the highest record, and the record of the pre- vious day, of that department and of the whole plant- to the end that each operative shall take not only an in- telligent interest in his own machine and output, but in those of his fellows and of the whole factory. The poor work of any individual mechanic is resented by his fellows, for it lowers the general result of the depart- ment and of the entire plant. The reorganized colleges will have an intelligent publicity bureau which will help to promote team work and tune up the whole establish- ment. They will not encourage an external advertising bureau to boom their intercollegiate athletics, and yet consider it undignified to have a publicity bureau for proper scholastic purposes. They will know that there are other things than athletics in which the colleges ought to be proud of their records and of their members Advertising and the Publicity Bureau 285 on the " All- America Team." This new bureau will learn, from its own football manager or from some suc- cessful business alumnus, many points on external pub- licity and on keeping up student and alumni interest. The object of such publicity will not be vainglory, but to promote team work, and college pride, and esprit de corps, and thus the good work of those who would other- wise be indifferent or lazy; and thereby assist the col- lege, and every part of it, in turning out better citizens. Especially at the first this publicity will be necessary for the department's own protection and to justify its innovations. For this department must expect to be the factor in the college with which the most fault will be found. The head of it must not be thin-skinned, for he will discover, as do others in like positions, that he will be the safety valve of the institution, and in the baldest way will be used to save the face of others. He will be like the city editor of a great newspaper or the managing clerk of a large law office, who often get little credit for their good work, yet are blamed for their own mistakes and for the results of the mistakes of all who are under them or above them. On this point a college professor writes: "It may be worth while noticing that the newspaper edi- tors are the chief obstacle in the way of making public the intellectual side of the college. They will not use this mat- ter but they cry for the other. This I know by experience." Publicity is but a minor branch of administration, but, like every other branch, an exceedingly important component part in a perfect whole. The publicity bu- reau will completely reverse what has been, too often, 286 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges the star-chamber policy of the faculty. It will sys- tematically and conscientiously lay before all concerned in or with the college the institution's plan of fulfilling its duty to the commonwealth and to them, and appeal for their enthusiastic aid in attaining such high ends. The publicity bureau will be an interesting and im- portant agent in the college economy. It will often serve as the brake upon the whole administrative sys- tem, and as the preliminary test of any proposed re- forms. Our most successful presidents have been those who kept their ear to the ground, who knew the great heart of the people, and what the nation needed and could do. It is one thing to think out a plan or theory in private, and quite another to state it clearly, and justify it before the public. The latter will be one of the functions of the college publicity bureau; and a very important and sobering function it will be. Usually before it makes an important publication this bureau will have felt the college pulse and will have paved the way for a cordial acceptance of the new plans. The president of the Carnegie Foundation says: "College authorities have hitherto been inclined to take the position that the public is not concerned with the details of the financial administration of institutions of learning. I wish to urge that the policy of publicity in these matters is the only true one. The public which supports a college is entitled to know how the college income is spent, what proportion goes into administration, what salaries are paid, how much is spent in advertising ano\ other details of ex- pense. It has been a source of strength to the state uni- versities that these details (including the exact pay of each officer and teacher) must be printed for public inspection. A thoroughgoing financial statement of investments, an- Advertising and the Publicity Bureau 287 nual receipts and expenditures should be required by law of all chartered institutions. Colleges and universities should do this without legal requirement as a matter of good faith." 1 But this is not going nearly far enough. The finan- cial condition and needs of the institution should be plainly and fairly stated at least once a month, and laid frankly before every alumnus, and before the parents of every undergraduate, and be put into the hands of everyone interested in the institution who asks for a copy of these statements. A high standard should be set for the financial needs of the college say $400 per annum per student for instructional and other pur- poses, in addition to $100 for administration expenses. The number of students should then be strictly limited to this standard until the income for an increase in numbers has been supplied through the labors of the publicity bureau. In all earnestness I say to the colleges: "According to your faith, be it unto you!" You will get all the money you need, provided you constantly, honestly, frankly and wisely exhibit to your friends and alumni the real cost of maintaining a reorganized college, whose aim is to train every undergraduate so as to develop one hundred per cent of his capacity for future citizenship in all its planes. But do not be driven into the old mis- take of exceeding your capital. If a new and desirable departure is proposed which requires new expense, do not be afraid to ask where the money is coming from. Let him who proposes a new departure work out its 1 " The Financial Status of the Professor in America and in Ger- many," p. x. 288 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges estimated expense and then provide it. But be sure tc work the publicity bureau overtime in showing what the college is accomplishing. There is little need of beg- ging. Good, clean work for citizenship will be fully appreciated and the money to extend it will be forth- coming. "According to your faith [and good faith], be it unto you!" CHAPTER XXVII STANDARDIZATION AND UNIFORMITY IN THE REORGAN- IZED COLLEGE I HAVE repeatedly had occasion to refer to the unfor- tunate results which come from the lack of standardiza- tion in our colleges, but this matter is so vital in the eyes of the reorganizer that it must be discussed by itself and its significance further demonstrated. In every important corporate interest, except the colleges, standardization has been one great step for- ward during the past forty years. The mind turns naturally to the railroad gauge of four feet eight and one- half inches at which our railway tracks have at last been made uniform. Yet at the first this was merely an adaptation of the gauge at which the wagons in the country had been previously standardized. But this is a very minor part of the great struggle for standardiza- tion which has enabled our railroads to bring about im- portant reductions in the cost of transportation. At first "the knowledge acquired by the officials of one company as the result of experiment and experience was unknown to the others, rarely communicated and sometimes jealously guarded." This has been completely changed, and almost entirely through the formation of the various railway associa- 289 290 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges tions which are national in their character. The chief aim of the following associations has been to standard- ize, improve and make uniform some particular branch of railroading, principally in administration : The Amer- ican Railway Association, The Master Car Builders' Association, the American Railway Master Car Me- chanics' Association, the International Association of Car Accountants and Car Service Officers, the Railway Transportation Association, the Association of Railway Telegraph Superintendents, the Train Dispatchers As- sociation of America, the International Association of Railway Surgeons, the National Association of Car Service Managers, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, the American Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents, the American Association of Traveling Passenger Agents, the American Association of General Baggage Agents, the Association of American Railway Account- ing Officers, the Association of Railway Claim Agents, and the Freight Claim Association. Other national as- sociations of railway officers and employees of the oper- ating department, also organized largely for the stand- ardization and improvement of the equipment and service, comprise superintendents of bridges and build- ings, master boiler makers, master car and locomotive painters, railway air-brake men, etc. It is through the standardization and uniformity brought about by the efforts of these and many other similar associations that railroad equipment is interchangeable; that freight may be sent anywhere without breaking bulk; that interline coupon tickets enable passengers to buy transportation Standardization and Uniformity 291 from each principal point to all other principal points on the continent; in a word, that the railroads have been enabled to build up the country and its wealth, and thus to make some repayment for the enormous rights and powers which have been so freely conferred upon them as public servants. In the same manner there has been an ever-growing tendency toward standardization and uniformity in most trades and forms of manufacturing. In many indus- tries uniform price lists have been used by every manu- facturer for thirty or forty years. The hundreds of different prices upon the list, covering all the articles manufactured, have not varied during that period, but the fluctuations have been merely in the discounts from the prices upon the list. The customer cannot and need not remember the exact former cost to him of a par- ticular article, but only whether the discount is greater or less in one instance than another. Nor need he re- member the prices of hundreds of sizes and kinds of pipes, couplings and fittings, but merely the relative discounts from a fixed and universal price list; that is, whether his discount was twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty- eight, thirty or thirty-five per cent from the listed price. So there is a constant tendency to standardization and uniformity in mechanical details; in sizes, gauges, threads and other things which in olden times not only differed in the product of different makers but in the product of each manufacturer. Standardization and uniformity tend to economy, in- creased use and demand, efficiency and improved re- 292 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges suits. The same rule would apply as well in the col- leges if they would as intelligently apply it through an administrative department. I have already referred in Chapter I to the variety of form and content of our so-called colleges and univer- sities. A direct corollary of this is the immense loss of power and unnecessary lack of efficiency which result from the failure of the colleges to standardize and make uniform many of their processes and functions. Judg- ing the colleges as a whole, jrom the standpoint oj the student that is, that the college education is to enable him to find himself and then to train him to his utmost efficiency in every plane of his future citizenship the careful business observer is appalled at the enormous loss of future potentiality in citizenship, intellectual growth and true culture which is chargeable to the lack of standardization and uniformity in certain of the ad- ministrative and productive or instructional parts of the colleges. But this is evident also if the study is from any other standpoint than that of the student. The Carnegie Foundation has carefully scrutinized the col- lege economy, and summed up some of its discoveries in its Bulletins. It is instructive to note some of its conclusions as to the waste capital, income, material and opportunity caused by the lack of standardization and uniformity. As to the fundamental organization of the colleges, it finds the greatest diversity of conditions. More than half the institutions have a more or less direct connec- tion with religious denominations, but the report tabu- lates over fifty differing forms in which this connection Standardization and Unijormity 293 is made. But even this diversity is further complicated, for the Second Bulletin says (p. 7) that "The state governments have themselves in all cases a system of education limited by state lines. The same de- nominations have erected colleges and universities in differ- ent states, so that the problem of higher education is almost necessarily studied from the standpoint of the state," and thereby the usual complications of denominational control correspondingly increased. Again: "It is evident that if the system of higher education is finally to have unity, strength and thoroughness, enormous sums of money must be spent to develop these numerous institutions, or else many of them must be in the end aban- doned. One can scarcely doubt that the latter course will finally come about by the mere progress of events, for there can be no doubt that many of these institutions are wholly unnecessary. They have been produced partly from a gen- uine interest in education; partly by denominational and local rivalry; sometimes by the enterprise of real-estate agents; and under a system of laws which allowed any group of men to come together and call the institution which they founded a college. There are in most states many more such institutions than are necessary for the work of higher education, and the multiplication of the number un- doubtedly lowers the general standard of institutions." In Appendix No. V will be found extracts from the Bulletin of the Carnegie Foundation showing some of the things as to which the colleges must be standardized. I know of no publications which are more instructive than those of the Foundation as to the problems, almost wholly administrative, of the colleges. But again, as already shown, there are vital differ- ences in the institutions themselves which demand in- ternal standardization. Not long ago the secretary of 294 The Reorganization of Our Colleges one of our largest universities told me that entering students in their arts and in their engineering courses were of about the same grade, coming mostly from the same high or other preparatory schools. "But," he continued, " we feel an entirely different responsibility as to these two courses. If a graduate of our engineering school should build a bridge which fell down, we would consider it a reflection upon the whole institution. But if a graduate of the college makes shipwreck of his life, we feel no particular disgrace, for we measure our re- sponsibility in this latter case by an entirely different standard." We must not confuse modern standardization of methods, and systems and administrative details, with the equally modern theory and practice of interchange- able mechanical parts. They are not upon the same plane, although they have accomplished somewhat simi- lar results. We do need a standardization of educational methods, leading to an increased production of thinkers, scholars and all-around citizens, but we do not need, and in fact should carefully avoid, the production of machine-made holders of college diplomas, all, so far as the world can judge, of the D or sixty per cent standard. Standardization of methods and systems leads to true economy and to constant improvement in results and products, which can then be surely judged and com- pared. A great improvement in this respect can easily be brought about in the colleges. The Carnegie Library gifts have shown what muni- cipalities will do to obtain certain benefits, and the Car- Standardization and Uniformity 295 negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has shown how far the colleges will go in giving up denom- inational connections and in improvement in teaching standards so as to come within its provisions. So if certain standardized rules were set for the colleges, and some governmental or other outside aid granted to those colleges which would submit and conform to such stand- ards and tests, it would be found that the institutions would accept the aid upon these conditions as gladly and universally as the municipalities and colleges have in the other instances. A little pecuniary help given in this manner would go a great way toward bringing about speedy and substantial reforms in our colleges, and it is to be feared that nothing else will. For years much has been written about the differences between the colleges and universities and the duties and func- tions of each, but very little has been accomplished in the way of constructive work. On the other hand, the Carnegie Foundation, with its many millions of endow- ment, has already accomplished wonders in directing at- tention to the internal disorganization and failures of the colleges, and at a merely nominal expense. This demonstrates how far a comparatively small amount of money will go toward improving college conditions when it is applied in a businesslike way from a central agency. It also demonstrates that the mistakes of the colleges have been those of the head rather than of the heart; or of a mistaken rather than of a true idealism. The indirect benefits derived by the state, in im- proved citizenship and ideals and in the true economy which standardization would work in the educational 296 The Reorganization of Our Colleges outlays and administration of its higher and lower in- stitutions, would more than compensate for the small additional annual outlay which would be necessitated. The state universities, covering more than one half of the total student body, would adopt improved methods as a matter of course. So would the older and richer private colleges and universities which comprehend probably another thirty per cent. The shoe would pinch, if at all, with the smaller and poorer colleges, which would in fact be benefited by improved administrative methods, but which are so small in membership as to make their administrative problems very simple. CHAPTER XXVIII SOME FINAL SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT THE head of the college administrative department who will not be the college president must be as wise as a serpent, as gentle as a dove, but as firm as a rock in standing for what is unquestionably right and desir- able for the larger weal. He will have as much advice about the right course to be pursued as did President Lincoln about the conduct of the war, and often it will be about as valuable; but it must be received and con- sidered with Lincoln's feeling that, while the war was raging, his administration and the country had enough avowed enemies, and must be ultracareful not to alien- ate its friends, even if they were misguided and officious. The new administrative chief must often go forward by indirection, and be ready to compromise on unes- sentials in order to gain his larger ends. He must adopt as one of his mottoes " jestina lente" and inspect his ground carefully before taking too firm a stand. In the beginning he will be largely in terra incognita, and be arrayed against a conservatism which will some- times appear to be pig-headed. But such has been the rule in college progress, which often has been not through, but rather notwithstanding, many of the older professors who were too old to learn new tricks. 297 298 The Reorganization of Our Colleges This new administrative department will not be a place for boys, but will require our very best and most robust men, with plenty of good red blood, yet with that genial personality which can disarm criticism with a smile; and with the true diplomat's ability to refuse a favor and leave no sting, but rather the feeling that the asker has been placed under personal obligation not- withstanding the refusal. The head of this depart- ment must also be broad-minded enough to keep his own personality in the background, and give much of the credit for his own good management to the men who are simply the instruments through whom he works; while he himself is content with the satisfaction which comes from the attainment of the great ends which he has in view. He must have unfailing enthusiasm and faith in the value of his work and department, and be able to impart that enthusiasm to others in the college. In the words of an experienced college president: "Over both instructors and students there must be ad- ministrators who are large minded, resourceful, good judges of men, swift to discern weakness but neither captious nor hypercritical industrious and truly and lawfully am- bitious." The head of this department will constantly be en- deavoring to find and train eligible candidates for carry- ing on college administrative work, and be proud of the number of good men whom he can inspire to follow in his footsteps. For this department, with its diverse and intricate duties and functions, will probably require ten times as many men as are now thought necessary in our present apologies for administration. Soon we shall The Separate Administrative Department 299 come to feel, as does the business man, that not a cent is' wasted which is spent to improve administrative con- ditions, and thus the net working efficiency of every man connected with the institution. Here also will be found an opportunity to employ in subsidiary positions some bright undergraduates who wish to earn their own living. Here let us candidly consider the objections which naturally arise in the minds of thoughtful instructors who know that things are awry, but hesitate to adopt any specific remedy lest thereby the evils be aggravated, palliated or transferred to some other location in the general scheme of education. A progressive dean of a Western university writes: "Two general criticisms to your plans keep coming up in my mind. There is among teachers an innate fear of being ruled by red tape. Emphasis is laid generally on sponta- neity, on freedom from restraint which permits men to follow their natural lines. How can you convince the pedagogic arm of the service that the newly created administrative branch will not put into force rules which will encroach upon the rights of the teachers they would say, upon their power to carry on work so as to develop satisfactorily their students? Now please understand this does not appear to me a serious argument, but, in talking the problem over with colleagues, they feel a great hidden danger in the growth of a power which may make them cogs of a wheel. I find they regard the administrative machinery of our great cor- porations as fetters rather than tools, and it is difficult to make them view the matter in any other light. In the next place, . the amount of money involved is, for any Western institution, relatively enormous. The mere statement of this amount will cause the question to be decided adversely at once. There must be, I fear, a suggestion of a line of grad- ual change which shall in time, as the results are seen and appreciated, lead to the full adoption of your plan. In fact is it not true that evolution is always a gradual process? 300 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Even the advocates of mutation hold that such sudden changes do not work a very radical alteration in first instance. How can you plan for gradual systematization of the ad- ministrative element?" I have fully shown elsewhere that true administration is a helpful tool and not an expensive clog, and that in the reorganized college it will relieve the instructor from outside drudgery and insure good pedagogical results. The application of new administrative methods may or may not be gradual. Their formulation should be complete from the beginning, leaving the development of the complete plan to a more or less distant future. The inherent distinction between modern college peda- gogy and administration must be firmly grasped : its ap- plication in all its details may occupy much time and meet with many obstacles. But we can see from the above letter why, from the nature of the case, college administration, as an adjunct to and under the control of the pedagogical branch, is sure to be a comparative failure in a large institution. Let us suppose, for example, that the faculty has 100 members, instructing about i ,000 undergraduates. We have already gotten some notion of the importance of the administrative problems which are involved if such an institution is to perform its whole duty to the common- wealth, and to all the other interests which have a right to expect the college to do its full duty, and especially in view of present transitoriness and uncertainty of all college conditions. Suppose, further, that a few indi- vidual professors, eminently fitted for their pedagogical duties, are delegated to institute and supervise adminis- The Separate Administrative Department 301 trative reforms. Admittedly, they are not experts in this science in its modern sense, and moreover any time taken by the delegated teachers for administration must be diverted from their time as instructors and their pedagogical results be correspondingly lessened. Hence the reforms cannot be complete unless these professors give up much of their time to enforcing what they have proposed. But true and radical reform always pinches at some point. In the present instance the reformers are colleagues, fellow-instructors presuming to dictate to their equals and fellows how the latter shall conduct their own work and courses. Almost inevitably jeal- ousy and dissatisfaction arise in the minds of the col- leagues as to the methods and even as to the manners and motives of the reformers. It is a case of the prophet not without honor. The members of the faculty are usually of equal rank, and many are avowedly opposed to any interference with their rights or courses. So long as the administration is under the control of a faculty in which such an element has a considerable voice, it must be evident that the administration must be anything but up-to-date and efficient. The notion of pedagogical control of college adminis- tration is repugnant to all modern business methods and, in the eyes of trained business administrators, doomed to failure. It is precisely at this point that a great conflict is being waged between capital and the trades unions. The latter insist that the foremen and superintendents, who are part of the administrative ma- chinery, shall be amenable to the men, the producers. The employers insist that these administrative agencies 302 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges shall be under the full control of the concern, and that otherwise there will be poor productive results. In this regard the advocates of pedagogic control of the college administration are ranged on the side of the trades unions and not on that of true business principles. They would have the administration controlled by the pro- ducers and not by the college. Such a system might have been expected to fail disastrously, and certainly there has been no disappointment in this regard! We have seen that the pedagogical department repre- sents, in one sense, but ten per cent of the student's time, and that it is but one of the great factors which help the student to find himself and make his college education a training for future citizenship. Therefore it is easy to see that, primarily, college administration should repre- sent the institution, and be its right hand in performing its great duties, rather than be an adjunct to one de- partment of the institution, even though that be the de- partment of production or instruction. We must not put the cart before the horse. The chief question is not whether the pedagogical department requires better ad- ministration, but rather whether the commonwealth, the parents, the students and all others interested in the college do not and should not demand far better results in citizen training from the college, and whether this huge, rich and complex public servant can do its full duty without the aid of a separate administrative de- partment. In considering this subject we constantly need to stop and think whether we have not drifted back to our old standpoint of the college or some par- ticular element of it, instead of keeping our eye fixed The Separate Administrative Department 303 upon the rights of the commonwealth and the duty of the public servant which comprehend every lower end. So much for answer to the first objection just quoted ; and now as to the question of expense. This department in its new guise will pay for itself and not cost the funds of the private college a dollar. For, if it is wise, it will lay its problems before the great captains of industry among the alumni and friends of the private college, and work hand and glove with them over questions in which they are past masters. The department should become their hobby, which they will be eager to conduct at their own expense, but for the lasting good of the institution. The few tens of thou- sands of dollars which Alma Mater needs for an up-to- date business management will seem a mere bagatelle beside the sums which many of these captains of in- dustry spend on that department of their own concerns. Their cordial cooperation and the benefit of their experi- ence cannot be bought, but, if sought in the right way, can be had for nothing, and with the privilege to them to foot the bills. They will add for good measure the services of some of their best accountants and other skilled assistants, for they have been accustomed to make a marked success and a work of art and science of any administrative reform which they undertook, and they will not spare time, thought or money to do the same for Alma Mater. Surely they will not be willing to score their first failure under the eyes of their fellow-alumni. Quite probably they were football captains or leaders in other intercollegiate contests. As such they will delight to take another championship from some old-time rival, 304 The Reorganization of Our Colleges by developing an administrative department which can- not be surpassed in the great intercollegiate contest as to which institution shall most intelligently and thor- oughly do its duty toward the state and in giving its undergraduates an ideal training for citizenship. Such leaders understood mass plays in college; and now, as trained business men, they know that the good admin- istrator, by caring for the individuals in the mass, can get such results from the mass as could not be obtained if the mass was not individualized. In the state universities the additional cost of the administrative department will be gladly assumed and provided for by the legislature. The value of the in- novation will be clearly seen, and the states have not often been niggardly toward any true reform in their institutions of higher learning. If the separate admin- istrative department is a success in one or more large privately endowed colleges, the states will gladly adopt and pay for so evident a means of enabling the common- wealth to get its money's worth, in efficient citizenship, out of its enormous annual outlays. One great source of revenue for this new department will be found among the parents. Many of them will gladly contribute from year to year toward giving the college a splendid department which shall individualize their sons and restore individual training. A wise ad- ministrative head will make certain that he individual- izes, not only the undergraduate, but also his parents; and thus he will make certain that the parents will not allow the college to drift back into its present state of inefficiency for the lack of a few scores of thousands of The Separate Administrative Department 305 dollars annually. If a college and its friends can sup- port intercollegiate athletics, certainly there will be no difficulty in maintaining an up-to-date administrative department and its coach and trainers. At least let the college attempt it. With the cleaning up of the college community and home lives, the average undergraduate will get far bet- ter results at seventy-five per cent of the present cost to his parents. Why should not the college get the benefit of the money which it thus saves? But the new department will not only pay for itself, but it will get large additions to the college funds; for it can present the business needs of the college to the parents and business alumni in the terms and forms to which they are accustomed in their own affairs. It will no longer be the president's chief duty to pass the hat; for the parents and business alumni, with the college balance sheet and the expert advice of an up-to-date administrative department before them, will in some things be better able to judge of what the college needs than the president himself, and probably they will feel like doing things more thoroughly and on a more liberal scale than any instructor would dare to propose. The colleges should be more like banking institutions, with plenty of liquid capital. Instead of this it has too often seemed to be their aim to sink as much as possible of their money in buildings, instead of keeping it in interest-bearing funds wherewith to hire brains. The banks which have a hard time in periods of panic are frequently those which have tied up large portions of their capital in fine piles of brick and mortar. These 306 The Reorganization of Our Colleges buildings may bring a fair return upon the capital in- vested in them, but that is not a proper use of the bank's capital. Rather it should be applied in supplying com- mercial and banking wants, which are quite distinct from real-estate investments. A college needs just sufficient buildings to house its members and their departments, and these should be built upon a well-defined plan of the highest aesthetic and utilitarian value. But the chief part of the institu- tion's capital, that is, its funds, should be invested in men; not necessarily more men, but better men and better-paid men, working always at better and better advantage, and with bettering results, and held to a stricter accountability for better results. Let us then re- verse our notion that Alma Mater needs more or finer buildings, or that she must have new buildings to rival those of some competitor. Let us grudge money for such purposes and lavish it on brains; not necessarily teaching brains, but also the brains which will make good administrative and student life departments. At any rate let us give the benefit of the doubt to keeping our college assets in liquid form. In at least one leading university it is proposed, after finishing the buildings now under construction, to undertake no further con- struction for several years, but to devote all efforts to increasing the salaries of the teaching force. Nor should we be so anxious to get huge endowments. Let us cultivate the sources from which we can get a large annual income through small annual subscrip- tions. If we have this source of income we will soon get the endowment; but the reverse is not necessarily true. CHAPTER XXIX THE RELATION OF ADMINISTRATION TO THE STUDENT LIFE IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE THE reorganized college will recognize that the stu- dent life and administrative departments are separate from, yet coordinate with, each other, and that both are subordinate to the good name and work of the institu- tion itself; that is, to its duty as a quasi state and as a public corporation. In other words, they are but means to the greater whole, which in itself is primarily only a means to achieve the lasting good of its individual stu- dents. But these departments run so closely parallel to each other, and touch and overlap at so many points, that it is difficult not to treat them together. Yet it is necessary that their essential differences should first be clearly defined in our minds, for then we can safely think of the points where they come together, without the danger of overlooking equally important points where they are not in the same life plane, and so cannot touch each other. For these reasons these departments have been treated in different parts of this book, but we must now consider how the administrative department must make sure that the student life works out its own problems. As no two homes in a college are exactly alike, so no two colleges are governed by precisely the same local and internal conditions, and each must be reorganized 307 308 The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges by those responsible for it, and not by interference from without. Hence we can lay down here only general rules which have a wide application. Let us clearly realize that each college home and each college is to a certain extent a law unto itself, especially to one who is not or has not been a member therein. The unsolicited interference of an outsider is resented and justly so, for it implies that the home or college is not capable of managing its own affairs. However self- assertive and self-confident we may be in regard to our own home or college, our attitude must change when we come to the portals of another's home or college, wherein, from the nature of the case, we must be aliens and strangers. We may lay down general principles, but the application of these must be left to those who com- pose the home and college or control their affairs. The final blame or praise must rest upon them for they, each and every one, are stewards, and will be held ul- timately to a strict account for their stewardship. The first step in improving the conditions of the col- lege community life and the college homes must be in a realization that these are complementary and intimately connected, yet governed by differing rules and laws; just as our community or business lives are the comple- ments of our private lives, intimately associated and constantly crossing each other, yet governed by rules which in many ways differ widely. Hence every influ- ence which adversely or favorably affects either of these counterparts must affect the other; and this must never be forgotten in regard to the general student life and the college family life. Administration and the Student Lije 309 Let us next remember that the student's life should not be all work nor all play. There is a distinct place in it for the play; the undefined something, quite outside of the curriculum, which makes it a joy to look back upon our college days, yet which ever after makes us better able to live for and with our fellow-men. The ninety per cent of the student life is the modern successor of the earlier college as a school of manners, and we must not overlook that which has always been so important an element in the character of the alumnus. This is the period of life when the young human animal is full of vigor and hope and fun, and we must give these an abundant and natural vent, or there will surely be moral degeneration. There must be the fullest opportunity for strenuous, manly, even rough sports, and for the gentler things. We must breed neither namby-pamby students nor boors, but strong, able, cultivated, polished men and thinkers, who are thus fitted to make the most out of their splendid manhood. We can never hope to lay down precise rules for either the general student life or the college homes. What is wrong for one man may seem right and proper to another. What will shock one may not offend an- other. Many, many things are matters of habit, or bringing up, or inclination, and very few are so unmis- takably and essentially morally right or wrong as to warrant us in interfering in our neighbor's affairs, and especially in his home. If the college home atmos- phere is fine, there will be no reason why the under- graduates should not be occasionally kiddish and foolish and obstreperous, just like most of their predecessors 310 The Reorganization of Our Colleges so long as they do nothing vicious or which unfits them for future citizenship. But the college can and should be active in keeping the general student life as clean and inspiring as pos- sible. This is the straight edge against which it ought to constantly test all its rules and regulations. If the general college atmosphere is clean and right, and if so far as possible only dean men are admitted, we may be sure that not many students will go radically wrong. Most of all, we must not forget for a moment that college is the place for the young man to find himself; that is, to try his new strength and his new freedom, and to make the mistakes and have the falls which are incident to this life period. These mistakes and falls should be among his friends and in his college home, that he may be made more strong for the more terrible temptations of later life. This portion of the boy's growth is passed partly on the plane of his college community life and partly in his college home; and assuredly is as important as a D or sixty per cent diploma. The administrative department will keep its eye con- stantly fixed upon the training of citizens and thinkers, and upon the things which each individual undergradu- ate needs to round out his character, mentally, morally and physically. For one thing the administrative de- partment will insist upon compulsory gymnastics and frequent physical examinations, as likely to do away with certain forms of moral evil. It will also start model college homes for nonfraternity members, which they will exclusively occupy or in which they will have a preference; or in some other manner will provide for Administration and the Student Life 311 rounding out the social side of the nonfraternity men. It will surely individualize every undergraduate so far as relates to his college community and home life quite as much as it does in relation to his lessons and marks. The college has certain rights in every college home; assuredly the right to insist that no harmful influence therein shall adversely affect the forward progress of any student, mentally or morally. If it persistently fails in this respect any home may and should be suppressed by the college for the general good. But an adequate and able administrative department will be in such close and sympathetic touch with the dominant influences in its college homes that it will both use and help them in im- proving home conditions, and thus the general college good. All its aims will be toward good quality of work not for mere quantity. The students will study for training, not for marks or a diploma in their present meaning. We shall hold our fraternities more and more closely to a higher responsibility for the kind of men that they take into their homes, and even more for the kind that they graduate therefrom. Their members must stand for good scholarship as well as for eminence in ath- letics and social functions. We shall use this great home-building and home-making force along well-de- fined and well-thought-out lines, worthy of the limitless amount of graduate and undergraduate energy which is stored therein. The fraternities, as they realize their great place in the college lives of their undergraduate members, will surely rise to higher and higher places, and set the example for the college home which the col- 312 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges lege itself must foster for its nonfraternity members. It ought never to be necessary for the administrative department to post a fraternity chapter as vicious and as forbidden to receive new members until its moral and educational conditions shall have been improved. But undoubtedly the college has this right, and should use it with extreme caution if necessary to enable the in- stitution to do its great duty to the state in regard to the citizens of that particular fraternity home. But the mere threat of such heroic measures, given to the general officers of the chapter or fraternity, would probably be sufficient to accomplish a wholesome reform. An ennobling student life and clean home lives will not be a matter of college law or ordinance, but of an enlightened public sentiment carefully fostered by the conjoint interest of the institution and its homes, and growing better by its own innate strength; and the col- lege's forces for this end will be marshalled by an intelli- gent but separate administrative department or bureau. These are no fanciful dreams of a theorist. They have been realized many times in many places under widely varying conditions in our colleges, but much more extensively in modern business concerns with far more difficult problems and under less favorable cir- cumstances than confront the colleges. Under the ideals which will ultimately prevail in our reorganized institutions, conditions like those now prevailing in the student life and college homes of some institutions will be unthinkable and abhorrent to all right-minded men, for these will be banded firmly together to improve the soil into which the good seed is to fall. CHAPTER XXX THE PRESIDENT IN THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE WHEN, in the growth of a great business, the admin- istration has developed into a department and system, the crowning personality of the concern must be further evolved into an executive head. This executive is no longer necessarily the master workman who is thor- oughly acquainted, technically and otherwise, with every detail of the business and able to step into any breach. He must deal, at second hand, through skilled technical assistants, with things about which he per- sonally can know little, either technically or actually. He knows the object which he has in view, but frequent- ly would be quite unfitted to work it out unaided. He is over all the departments, not at the head of any one. He is as much the executive head of the manufacturing or other productive department as of the administrative. It is unfortunate that in this country we confuse the meaning of the words "executive" and "administra- tive." This confusion arises largely from the loose way in which the words are used in connection with our government. We speak of its three great departments as legislative, judicial and administrative, and forget that there is really a fourth, the executive, who, in a sense, is exercising functions that are inherently leg- 313 314 The Reorganization^ o\ Oj*r Colleges islative, judicial and admlfiteffative. His powers to make treaties and appointments, to grant pardons, to carry out laws in whose making he had a hand, etc., are legislative, judicial or administrative in their nature, or extra-legislative, extra-judicial or extra-adminis- trative, according to the point, historical, judicial or political, from which we view them. In a great busi- ness concern the executive is quite above and outside of the financial, manufacturing, administrative or other departments, and, as already stated, he may know very little of these departments from a practical or technical standpoint. In Harvard and Yale and the earlier divinity-school colleges, upon whose plans and traditions the older American college was founded, the president was neces- sarily the distinguished divine who was fitted to be a leader in all things connected with the college, and deemed capable of getting the best results out of the in- stitution for the church and state, and hence for the individual students. His work was known of all men, and his position was one of highest honor in the colo- nies. Our earlier college histories are largely chron- icles of the administrations of the several presidents, whose names usually head the chapters. But these presidents were very seldom promoted from the ranks of the faculty. They were strong and scholarly men, who had made a success of their work in the world, and who brought into the college new life and spirit from the world without, and who were unaffected by faculty jealousies and dissensions. Indeed it has never been the rule to promote from the ranks of the faculty to the The President 315 presidency, but quite the contrary; care being usually taken that the new president should be an alumnus of the institution, often an unfortunate method of in- breeding. Why not, in our reorganized colleges, formu- late and apply the former principles, after adapting them to modern conditions? The president should be the chief executive of the whole institution, but not merely the chief of its finan- cial, pedagogical, administrative or student life depart- ments. These will each be important enough to have their own heads and subheads, their courses or their bureaus. But the work of the president is over and above any of these things. The chief functions of the executive of the reorganized college will not be to know the financial needs of the institution and the rich men without its walls, and to get in money; but rather to know the riches of mind and promise and opportunity within the walls, and to get results in citizenship and training from these mines of wealth. When this is truly the case, there will be little need of hurrying around for money, for the amount of work attempted will be rigidly limited by the available cash; and any additional money needed to expand such ideal work will be readily forthcoming, especially from that great mine of wealth heretofore unworked the parents of the men in college, who are usually able and who should be made willing to give each year the sums necessary to meet the new administrative problems connected with the training for citizenship of their own sons. The reorganized college will distinctly, unhesitat- ingly nay, gladly recognize its duties toward the 316 The Reorganization o] Our Colleges state and its higher interests; toward the various pro- fessions or businesses into which its graduates are to go; toward the families from which they come and those of which they shall become the qualified heads ; toward its undergraduates within its walls; toward its gradu- ates as citizens, fathers, and as men who shall make the world better because they have lived in it; toward the members of the faculty, that they may be not only good scholars, but primarily great and inspiring teachers, and that they shall not rust out nor become fossilized, but shall have the opportunity to grow and to do original work, with a chance to lay aside some financial store for an honored old age and for their loved ones not as objects of charity, but because they have earned and have had an annual surplus; toward its own highest ends and reputation; toward itself, with an honored past of devotion, sacrifice and accomplishment, but with even a more glorious future as its own wealth, and its opportunities and the demands upon it grow. If this be the ideal of the reorganized college and it is a just, fair and accomplishable ideal then the college must be headed by a truly great man, who can keep in touch with all these great objectives, and can lay out and carry out such a comprehensive plan of a great educational institution, and of a college education for the highest kind of citizenship ; and not be or be regarded merely as a money-getting machine. Backed by his board of trustees he must be the chief planner, and be able to get others to carry out his policies and to be proud to be identified with him. He will not be the chief laborer but the great organizer; not the head of an army corps, or The President 317 division or branch of the service, but the general who plans and executes the campaign, even if it covers a whole country in its details; not the great scholar, or financier or administrator, but the preeminent man and executive. A well-organized administrative department will be one great agency through which he will make his influence and spirit felt, but it will be merely an instru- ment especially adapted to bring to pass the work of that man in that place, under conditions which there sur- round him from time to time. Like the chief of the ad- ministrative department, the president must fully ap- preciate that it must be the skill, hard work and devotion of other men, both to himself and to the cause, which alone can make complete success possible. His chief duty is to plan and direct, and then to inspire his coworkers, and especially the undergraduates, to do their best to carry through the great work of the institution. The president then is to be the man who shall bring things to pass in the reorganized college. He will not necessarily have grown up from the faculty ranks, nor even be a graduate of the institution. He will have had a large view of and experience with the outside world. He will have accomplished something worth while in his previous work. The business world to-day is con- stantly on the lookout for men of force rather than for technical experts, and the college must adopt the same plan. In 1907 the three great insurance companies of New York City had combined admitted assets of $1,415,857,237, or over five times the capital and sur- plus of all the clearing-house banks in that city. Yet 318 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges not one of those great companies had a president who had started life in any branch of insurance. One was an old merchant, another a lawyer, and the third a railroad official. At the end of 1907 the seven largest banks of New York City had over seventy per cent of the total capital and surplus of all the members of the Clearing House. Yet only one of these institutions had a president who started life in a bank. Many other ex- amples might be given of men who have made successful heads of businesses in which they were not originally educated. The training of a great executive requires a wide and varied experience, but most of all it must be based upon the ability to move other men and to cause them to work out the great plans which are clear to those at the head but which the workers must take largely upon faith. Yet we should remember that usually such men must be found and made, and are not to be found ready-made. But there is one lesson which must be learned in the reorganized college, and that is that executive responsi- bility cannot be divided. The head of a great business corporation is at least left free to work out the great policies of the concern, subject to the will of his direc- tors and stockholders and his own ability to make good. In such affairs it is realized that each man, with a per- sonality great enough to entitle him to the place of executive, must have his own methods, and even his own idiosyncrasies, which must be borne with for the greater good. The armor of Saul would have been worse than useless to David, and he was wise in insist- ing that he should be allowed to conduct his battle in The President 319 his own way. If we can find a forceful individual fit to be at the head of our reorganized college we must let him work out his own problems largely along his own lines, freed from the hampering influences of the faculty, or trustees or others, except so far as he needs and seeks their help, and is able to get their intelligent and en- thusiastic cooperation. The most successful presidents of the United States have been those who have gathered about them in their cabinets their greatest compeers and rivals, and who have worked through and with these. The successful college president will have a cabinet of splendid experts, but he will not be at the mercy of a faculty for his in- structors will be attending to their own higher aims, and his cabinet will be the men through whom he is in touch with every part of his organization, but who are doing the w6rk which he could not attend to if he tried. No two successful college presidents will do their own work or manage their forces in precisely the same way. Their personality will be too strong to be run into the same mold, but they will all unite to perfect the tools by which they themselves shall work, that is, their finan- cial, instructional, student life and administrative de- partments. Furthermore, they will cordially unite to standardize and make uniform the minor things in college administration, so that they and their best coad- jutors may give their chief attention to more important things. In the reorganized college the president must keep the college true to its duty to the state, and the under- graduates true to their education for citizenship, and the 320 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges faculty will understand this. The college must dis- tinctively train its students so that they may become great leaders. Diplomas and marks are in the highest sense deceptive, except so far as they aid in fitting for the true scholarliness and mental training which will make it possible for our students to master great subjects in their later life, and for the spirit of leadership which shall enable them to dominate and lead masses of men, and by such combined power work out great results. As the university must be a great leader for and in the state, so its trustees and officers and undergraduates must be in the van, and join with its president in his aim to train leaders. And let us carefully watch our president lest he shall break down under such a tre- mendous load. In other words, we must see that our college presi- dents are forceful men of affairs and achievements, un- der whose benign and stimulating influence the financial, pedagogic, administrative and student life departments will reach their highest development, and be united intc a perfectly working machine upon its administrative side, but working for individual training upon its in- tellectual side. There are many such men already in presidential chairs, but they are hampered by the failure of the col- leges to give them a freer rein. These men have worked out many of the college problems to the conclusions reached herein, and have striven faithfully to realize their ideals, but have been too frequently thrown back by the antiquated system of faculty management inherited from the forefathers, or by the faults or whims of boards The President 321 of trustees, and by the insurmountable obstacles arising from failure to analyze the problem of the college as a whole, and because of the unwillingness to differentiate and coordinate its departments, and let each attend to its own work. PART IV SUMMING UP CHAPTER XXXI THE MOTTO AND IDEAL OF THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE Now that we have analyzed our college conditions, and have pointed out some of the weak, and some of the unscientific, and some of the vicious spots therein, we must take the next step in our reorganization, and clearly determine the underlying principles upon which it shall proceed, and which shall control it; and, if pos- sible, find a motto which shall crystallize these principles in our thoughts ; for our criticism has been constructive and not destructive. The conditions are so different in our 850 institutions that we must find a single guiding star to serve for all. It has not been pleasant to pick the college economy to pieces. If no lasting good is to come from this exhibit, then it would have been better not to have made it, but rather to go on in our present blissful ignorance and complaisant self-satisfaction with the bigness and grossness of our great institutions, re- gardless of their influence for good or evil upon the state or their own students, and of their building for true manhood and citizenship. But if any permanent good is to follow this revelation of the great crime of the nine- teenth century against the twentieth century, we must determine upon some paramount ideal and hew to that line. 325 326 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges During the past generation the highest single develop- ment of the American college has been in football. Upon no other one department has so much time, money and enthusiasm of students, faculty, alumni and public been expended. No other single activity of the college has had the benefit of so much scientific study, com- parison of results and standardization. The general public knows and cares far more about the flying wedge, or mass play, or the forward pass, or the onside kick than it does about any other educational problem of the colleges. The parents of our land spend much time in deploring the annual football death list of from ten to seventeen men. Yet for every one killed, or even badly injured, hundreds of students are annually ruined mor- ally and physically by college vices. But the parents apparently take more interest in the physical dangers of football than in the moral evils which threaten the lives and futures of their sons. Football, then, is the chief flower and greatest accom- plishment of the American college during the last quar- ter of the nineteenth century. Let her not repudiate her own offspring, for in football principles or at least in some of them will yet be found Alma Mater's sal- vation! The startling growth of football has been no more accidental than the equally startling growth of the fra- ternity houses. The wave which has swept so com- pletely over our land and taken such hold on college and public must have some adequate educational reason, or else we as a nation must have gone mad. The col- lege authorities, looking backward because they had no The Motto and Ideal oj the College 327 adequate administrative department, could not see that the former college home life was obsolete and had dis- appeared, and therefore folded their hands and did nothing leaving the students with their alumni allies to evolve the fraternity home as a new pattern of the college home, well adapted to train the student citizens of the new form of quasi college state. In like man- ner, when the college authorities, looking backward, dreamed of fitting present-day students for modern affairs by the pedagogical methods of the earliest nar- row-minded divinity-school colleges the students, still working with their alumni allies, evolved football, with its modern methods, as a new form of education, well adapted to teach the student citizens of the quasi college state some of the lessons which, under modern condi- tions, they must learn, sooner or later, in their business or professional lives. Football to-day represents the only place in our colleges where modern business methods have been, consistently and persistently and for a long term of years, extensively applied to college affairs by experts thoroughly in earnest and intimately acquainted with college conditions. 1 As, therefore, the colleges dur- ing the past twenty-five years have invested more capi- tal of time, money and first-class talent in football than in any other one thing, they must be careful that this capital is put to good use and is not wasted. Let us, then, adopt football principles for the basis of our re- organization, and perchance some football enthusiasm may be introduced into the ordinary affairs of our re- organized college. "Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 237-43. 328 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges The college has paid heavily enough for its football investment, and so it is not larceny or unfair if it appro- priates, and uses as the basis of its reorganization, the football principle and motto: "Team work, hard work and good work." These words unfold to us the true secret of football enthusiasm and success, and of college lethargy and of the college waste heap. In the early days, when a college course was felt to be an inestimable blessing, it stood for team work, hard work and good work by everyone in the institution. But as time went on possibly because it was a period of change and possibly also because the college authorities were look- ing backward the college came to stand more and more for size, and numbers, and soft culture courses, and marks, and diplomas, and a misunderstood student life, and a depraved college home life; and less and less for team work, hard work and good work, and a com- plete training for citizenship and clean manhood. It is right here football scored its great victory among the stu- dents and with the public; for often the college course, with all kinds of handicaps, and with no separate ad- ministrative department, was not in the race. Every man, woman and child in the country can understand the team work, hard work and good work of college football, even if they know nothing of the fine points of the game, just as they cannot understand the present policy of the college, which, in too many cases, has not made for team work or hard work or good work. Team work, hard work and good work tell and are appreciated and admired in a great army, or fleet, or business estab- lishment, or in an America's Cup race, or in a football The Motto and Ideal oj the College 329 game, or in any walk of life, and they will surely be the motto and plan of the reorganized college. Every student knows what team work means in foot- ball. It signifies a common goal to be reached, after months or years of training, by the united efforts of many men, playing different positions in different ways, along different lines, yet trained for every emergency, and with every advantage of trainer, coach, substitutes, accessories and audience in a fair fight, with a worthy foe and for a worthy end. Good team work means this in every proper relation of life. If team work, hard work and good work are possible in college football, then surely also in the college itself. Yet in the col- lege economy, the great department which could and should organize and supervise team work throughout the body politic in its government, among its citizens and within its homes is practically undeveloped and unused. There is no administration in our colleges in the comprehensive meaning which the word has in our great business or manufacturing concerns, or even in our football ; or else the college would have adapted its old motto to new conditions, and would not have allowed its football coach so often to appropriate it to his own exclusive use. When the administrative department has assumed its proper place there must come the cleaning up and up- lifting of the college homes through the engendering in each of a strong, ennobling, home-making force. Clean, uplifting college homes working hand in hand with an enthusiastic and farsighted administrative department can clear up the general student life, and nothing else 330 The Reorganization of Our Colleges can. But not all of these can be truly successful except as the college ideal is raised many, many degrees to the higher plane of football and of good business concerns, with their motto, constantly lived up to: "Team work, hard work and good work." Frequently failures in college make great successes in life because the college ideals are low, the college family life is vicious and the college methods are wrong; while all these are changed when the student emerges into a clean, sane and uplifting business atmosphere, and his whole business life is governed by its rule of "Team work, hard work and good work." CHAPTER XXXII RESUME. THE KEYNOTE OF THE REORGANIZED COLLEGE LET us attempt to sum up our case and make some concrete suggestions for the future even at the risk of appearing to repeat; and keeping ever before us, as the keynote of the reorganized college, the ideal of a college education which enables the lad to find himself and gives him a training for citizenship and manhood, rather than primarily for either rank, athletics, social distinction or the fraternity. First. The aims and ideals of the college must be high and clearly defined. Its duty to the common- wealth and to the higher interests and the better policies thereof, as well as to the individuals and families which comprise the commonwealth, must be distinctly recog- nized and fulfilled. Much is said about what the state owes to the college as the capstone of its educational system, but there is very little agitation about the mighty and complex duties which the college, as its chief edu- cational leader, owesJp the state. If we can get clearly before our minds this paramount duty to the state a duty of leadership in all that is good, and high, and clean and ennobling; a duty to the future, near and far; a duty to the family and to the social order; a duty to the undergraduates, one and all we shall have set up 331 332 The Reorganization of Our Colleges our first great standard by which to judge of the real progress of our reorganization. Furthermore, we like to tell how, in the love of its members, the college should be greater than the fraternity, but are we willing to admit that in like manner the state should be greater than the college in the love and work of the students? What we need is more true patriotism for the common- wealth and its great interests along with our patriotism for Alma Mater, and football and other intercollegiate sports, and for the fraternity or club. Possibly we need not love the college and her good any less, but at least we must love the state and her good far more. En- thusiasm and patriotism for a successful football team form a very low and poor base upon which to rear a solid and enduring love for true education in the hearts of the undergraduates, and yet this is oftentimes the side of the college which is most apparent to the public. Where in any of our colleges is there a chair which attempts to teach the full duties of the college citizen to the college state, or of the college state to the common- wealth a great, broad, sane, effective citizenship? Or where is there a chair to teach the civic and political economy of the college state and of its constituent parts? The college must first realize and live up to its own ideal citizenship and leadership before it can teach these with power and life. Furthermore, we must raise our aims and ideals as to education itself in the abstract and concrete. Not as to marks, or diplomas, or courses, or endowment, or build- ings, or theories or methods, but as to the sound, fruit- ful, growing, virile and cultural education of each stu- Resume: The Keynote oj the College 333 dent the educing, the drawing out of the hundred per cent of the best which any individual has in him and of which he is capable; not alone or chiefly for the four years within Alma Mater's walks or homes, but for the years to come in the walks of life and in the communi- ties and homes affected and reached by him. We can- not aim too high as to education itself, but it is easy to see how low we have fallen in this regard. We have been too apt to confound the Kneipe with the scholar- ship of the German university. Too often we have been proud to hold a diploma which we knew was un- earned by real work and which did not represent true education. We have overlooked the fact that a German student cares little about the university from which he holds his degree, but is proud to proclaim that he studied under such and such a great teacher, renowned in scholarship. With us it is too much the institution from which we have obtained the sheepskin. With the Germans it is the teacher and the living truths which he appears to typify, since it was rfie who uncovered and disclosed to the world many of these truths. The facts which such a man can teach are indeed important, but not at all commensurate with the love of learning and investigation which he instills as he discloses his own methods of work, and thus reveals to his pupil the pov- erty of the latter's youthful acquirements and methods. Moreover, our aims and ideals must be for an educa- tion that is utilitarian in the highest sense, and produc- tive of citizenship and manhood before it is for mere culture. When an uneducated man hasfcbecome a skilled mechanic in any line, just so far hasiie become 334 The Reorganization of Our Colleges able to judge of the value of and appreciate good work in his own or in any other line of work. To that extent he is an expert in good work. So, if the undergraduate has thoroughly mastered any branch of learning in his course, he has a new unit by which to measure the scholarship of other men, and his own scholarly prog- ress and accomplishments in the future, and vice versa. If, in addition, this mastery has been obtained under the guidance of a teacher who also is a true, even if not a great, scholar, there has been introduced the element of true culture, no matter what has been the subject pursued. Good work done in any branch of the cur- riculum makes it possible to become thoroughly grounded in the so-called cultural courses. But time spent in "soft culture courses," skimmed through to the end that more hours may be given to some of the twenty- seven outside activities which embellish the college years, does not make for true education or true culture. If a student chooses for the most part soft culture courses and does as poor work in them as will get him a diploma, he will gain neither true culture nor true in- tellectual strength. So far as they set up or tolerate such standards, the colleges lower the value of their academic degrees, and the quality of the education which they are giving, and do actual harm, mental and moral, to their students. Instead of performing their own duty of leadership, and educating for future citi- zenship and clean manhood, they have debased the ideals of the future citizen instead of ennobling them. The man who uses his one talent is far better than he who buries or wastes his five talents, and the colleges are Resume: The Keynote of the College 335 often particeps criminis in this waste. The colleges fail in their duties so far as they do not turn out men who shall use to the uttermost the talents which have been committed to them as individuals. We must never let this ideal of the reorganized college and its training slip away from us in weighing the results upon the indi- vidual students of the course of any particular insti- tution. In the educational aims and ideals of the reorganized college, we must never forget that, in the professions and sciences and in many forms of business, this is the day of infinite detail and labyrinthine particulars to which the only clew is a thorough knowledge of the great underlying principles. Our education, then, must teach our students to ground themselves in prin- ciples, and to build the details upon this solid founda- tion and not to think that they can ever master a great science or profession by first learning its multi- tudinous details or by the soft-culture-course methods too prevalent in our colleges. They must be taught how to study and what to study, rather than to study for a diploma. They must be taught the digging and drudgery that is before them in a successful life's work and how these must be tackled, rather than be allowed to select a soft course out of a mass of electives. A successful football tackle, with all that it implies of discipline, practice and coaching, and then of quick decision and action, is one of the best possible illustra- tions of that training in hard and systematic work in intellectual matters which the college should force upon every student. If the institution will but make the ob- 336 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges ject of such work clear to the student, he will be as willing to undertake the drudgery in the college as in the professional school or in learning how to become a successful football player. The so-called culture courses had rightfully a large place in the education for controversy of the earlier times, and their value was plainly evident to the under- graduate of that day. At first the written and the spoken word were in Latin, as at Harvard's commence- ments. 1 Until comparatively recently, quotations from foreign languages or from the English classics or Bible were important weapons for the essayist or pamphleteer or orator. Hence what is to-day called "culture" was then in everyday use and essential to success under the prevailing conditions. To-day, we deal more in facts and figures and statistics, and our education, our college training, should be framed to meet modern con- ditions, at least so far as they train the mind of youth to battle successfully against the conditions which he, and not his ancestors, must meet. The student's years are largely wasted if we give him an education which is not best adapted to his future needs. The educational course of the reorganized college will hold clearly before its pupils the higher ideals of the best education, and strive to fill their minds with this lofty view of education itself; just as and just as much as the best professional schools strive to set clearly before the embryo professional man the highest ethics and ideals of his chosen calling and the lifelong work and devotion through which he must attain 1 " Individual Training in Our Colleges," pp. 61, 82-86. Resume: The Keynote of the College 337 leadership therein. Only by this constant gaze upon the best things of the profession can a young man's mind be molded to its highest standards, and he be made ready to undertake the arduous training which success implies. Heretofore our colleges have largely failed to hold up great standards of education, and make their true meaning and their value in after life clear and living before the eyes of their undergraduates. This failure has often come because these things were not clear in the eyes of the college authorities themselves, whose ideals have been on the diploma-marking-system- soft-culture-course-electives level and not on the highest planes of a true education. Slouchy, haphazard, go-as-you-please, laissez faire, are not pleasant words to use about anything; but they truly characterize too much of our so-called college edu- cation, as it works out, in fact, with too large a propor- tion of our students in too many institutions. The Briggs Report proves this and the investigations of the Carnegie Foundation demonstrate it. Unless the aims and ideals of the college itself are to be raised many degrees, it will be practically useless to attempt to reorganize upon business methods. Men will work hard for money or to support a family, but the college offers nothing of this kind. If we are to have team work, hard work and good work, we must cause our undergraduates to thoroughly understand the value of mastering a course of study in college, as well as in a profession, or a business, or in football or other sport. Thus only will they be ready to endure the strenuous work necessary to enable them to master the college edu- 338 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges cation which shall fit them to succeed to the utmost in the increasingly hard battle of life. This raising of the aims and ideals of our colleges must be general and widespread, or else the reorgan- ized college will be put at an unfair disadvantage in some important particulars. We understand what was meant when a well-known college president writes of intercollegiate contests : "The punctilious execution of whatever rules are agreed upon must be the sincere concern of all the colleges nom- inally concerned. The college attempting honesty in ath- letic sport single-handed fares as does the grocer who sells pure sugar when all his competitors sell sand." We shall find it hard to keep our aims and ideals high if in a neighboring institution education, so called, and the obtaining of a diploma are on the old sixty per cent soft- culture-course basis. Within the college itself, and between it and all its neighbors, we must live up to our new motto, "Team work, hard work and good work," so far as relates to new and higher aims and ideals, and harder and better work. Second. We shall clearly recognize that our college is divided into distinct departments, and that we can bring about a successful reorganization only by making a sharp cleavage between these departments, which shall thereafter be placed in keen but friendly rivalry and competition, so that each may hold the other to its very best for the common good, as is done in all well- organized business concerns. While there must be this rivalry, there must not be jealousy or unfairness, and Resume: The Keynote oj the College 339 there will not be if the right man is at the head and the aims and ideals of the college are high enough. But as the college must look above itself to the state and the other higher ends outside of itself, so each de- partment must look beyond its narrower boundaries to the greater whole the college with its high objects and duties. We must penalize every department, and every bureau or individual therein, which balks or sulks or otherwise gets out of harmony with its or his confreres or with the highest aims and ideals of the institution itself. Each department in all its parts must adopt and conscientiously carry out the new motto: "Team work, hard work and good work." And this will be the more easily done because each department will clearly recog- nize that it is a factor in the new quasi municipal cor- poration and public servant, and as such is performing a patriotic duty as truly as those who conduct the elec- tions or other public affairs of the commonwealth. This will become more evident as we now proceed to discuss the various departments in detail. Third. In many institutions some functions of the financial department cannot be much improved upon. The funds are well and conservatively invested, the securities are safeguarded and annually checked off by outsiders, the accounts are intelligently and clearly kept and detailed, and complete annual audits and re- ports made, published and distributed. The funds are in- vested, the accounts are kept, and the audits and reports are made by experts. There are still some improve- ments which can and will be made as to application and distribution of funds, etc., but this department should 34Q The Reorganization of Our Colleges be the least troublesome and most easily managed of all. Yet there are many college presidents who have in- sisted to me that there is a great laxity and want of system in the financial affairs of many institutions. If so, it is unpardonable; for there are many places, like Harvard and Oberlin, whose financial system could be easily followed. There should be directly connected with the financial department of every college an expert accountant who is thoroughly versed in factory administration and ac- counting. The administrative, business and account- ing problems of the college most closely resemble those of the factory or other producing industry. They have practically no resemblance to those of banking, and very little to those of transportation, or ordinary mer- chandising or jobbing. Such an accountant should supervise all the bookkeeping of every college activity, in such a manner as to teach good business methods and bookkeeping to all those immediately concerned therewith and to the student body as well. Also he should see that the financial department is divided roughly into three parts: the getting, the investing and the use of funds; covering the usual and unusual in- come, the investments, and the expenditures of the col- lege. Under the last head he should provide not only for the usual safeguards of all expenditures, but he should also institute a system under which there will be introduced as many new units as possible by which to judge of the work of all of the various departments, courses and individuals within the college, and to pro- vide methods by which the exact cost of each depart- Resume: TJte Keynote of the College 341 ment and course can be safely anticipated and ascer- tained to the end that there shall be provided, first, proper reserve funds to cover contingencies in the teaching force, and, second, that the best net result upon the individual undergraduate shall be obtained through limiting the student body, so that each course shall do its best possible work upon the right kind and right number of students, and within proper financial limits. In other words, this accountant must be in charge of the factory cost system of the institution, and must arrange this so that it shall be an available chart for future work, just as is done by the accounting force of every modern manufacturing business which covers a large volume of business and a large number of men. Fourth. The pedagogical or instructional depart- ment must be thoroughly reorganized, not so much as to personnel as to methods and ideals. If the teacher is to be the new primary unit of the college factory, he must be worthy of the place given him, and must be held to strict accountability in the high functions which he assumes in the quasi state, and must be rewarded and regarded accordingly; and these matters must have con- stant and grave consideration. The teacher must thor- oughly know his subject, and grow in it, and do original work worthy of the state, but also he must be an inspir- ing instructor as well as a scholar. He must enthuse his pupils and draw them to himself and his subject. He must approximate to President Garfield's ideal of a uni- versity himself at one end of a log and Mark Hopkins at the other. He must aim to educe the very best that is in his hearers, and must make them feel that their 342 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges education has been perceptibly advanced by their course under him. We must put a distinct and unmistakable premium upon fine teaching capacity, and not kill it off or cripple it by unduly or unfairly overworking it, or by asking it to do the work of the poor teacher, or by failing to recog- nize and reward it. If this premium cannot be ade- quately paid in money, then some form of honors and recognized scholastic distinction must be devised and applied and made known to the public. This is true of the German system, and there is no reason why some- thing of the same kind should not be attempted here. Most of all must there be the best possible system of promoting a good scholar and teacher so that his talents may have a recognized value, without as well as within the institution in which he works. A victorious college athlete may earn the right to wear the college letter, and often he will work hard for four years before he gets this badge of honor. Can it be that there is no just and wise method which the college authorities can devise by which good teaching work can earn its crown ? Successful col- lege athletes are known throughout the land, but what are the colleges doing to bring honor and reward to the great teachers whose work, after all, is at the foundation of college athletics and college life? Furthermore, we must clearly appreciate that huge faculties contain the same class of dangers to the promis- ing and earnest younger members thereof that huge stu- dent bodies do to the individual student. There is the same danger in each case that the individual will be lost in the mass or pocketed in the race; possibly because he Resume: The Keynote oj the College 343 has not those unpleasant aggressive and self-assertive personal qualities which will push forward a mediocre competitor. It should not be necessary for one who has in him the stuff for a good teacher to advance his own fortunes. There should be a well-organized adminis- trative system to recognize and reward such men and put them where they can do their most effective work for the commonwealth, the institution and the indi- vidual undergraduate. Hence there must be a clear perception of the need of picking out and rewarding true teaching merit, and we must experiment until we find the broadest and most effective means of assuring a crown of honor and the largest field of work for the suc- cessful and forceful teacher. Moreover, the college itself must award its own peda- gogical honors in no uncertain fashion if its successful instructors are to receive honor from the world at large. For years this policy has been followed in college foot- ball. Why should not the college in educational matters of which it should surely be the best judge also award some of the honors to which its teachers are justly en- titled? If it does not do this, it cannot complain if the world does not; nor if, in the eyes of the world, the suc- cessful coach or athlete seems far more important to the college than the most brilliant scholar and teacher. The world is but following the lead of the college itself, whose coach is sometimes more widely known than its presi- dent, and apparently has more real influence among its undergraduates and more lasting influence throughout their lives. As a matter of fact, nothing of this kind will ever be successful until a separate administrative de- 344 The Reorganization of Our Colleges partment introduces criteria by which good work in every branch can be picked out, made known and re- warded, and the colleges standardize upon these cri- teria. Let there be something like the same anxiety in the college itself for the health and effectiveness of a star teacher that there is for that of a star athlete. The newspapers devote columns to discussing whether a fa- mous quarterback or other member of a team will be in condition to play in or throughout a certain game; yet half of the faculty might be invalided and out of ser- vice, and hardly a line would appear in any journal. The college itself not by rules but by student, alumni and faculty public sentiment must reverse this order of things, whereby in appearance, if not in fact, ath- letic renown is the chief end of the institution and edu- cation the incident. If the successful teachers are to have a commen- surate honor and reward, it must be because student and alumni sentiment understands and values good edu- cational work, and gives it that chief place of honor due to it in an institution of higher learning, and because there is some recognized and standardized test by which good pedagogical work can be judged even in another institution. Every important profession has had to assert itself, and work out its own salvation and its right to honor- able and rewarding distinction. Theology, law, medi- cine, dentistry, engineering and other professions have thus, from time to time, fought their own battles for recognition and honor. College pedagogy must follow Resume: The Keynote of the College 345 the same course, or remain where it is and subject to about the present or worse conditions. There are but two courses open to it if it would better its position It must actually and in good faith raise its own standards and performance, and then insist upon and obtain a fair recognition upon its merits, or else it must organize upon the basis of a trades union and institute a country- wide strike. As a matter of fact, our college instructors could learn some important lessons from a labor union like that which governs our locomotive engineers. For one thing, they could learn to assert the right to have a controlling voice in the pedagogical policy of the in- stitution, and to be content to let the other depart- ments manage their own affairs. Admittedly, at first this must have some wise limitations, but the dangers of faculty control of the curriculum and of pedagogical affairs will be minimized when administration and dis- cipline are placed in the hands of a separate and co- ordinate department. Again and again I repeat it as my candid opinion that the salvation of the faculty lies in a separate and splendid administrative department, earnestly determined to get the best possible educa- tional results. The faculty should demand such a de- partment, and demand that it work for them, to make their work more productive and their results more sure and rewarding. I am firmly convinced that until such a department has begun to make itself felt, the faculty as such can never take their proper places in the college or the outside world. To me this seems perfectly self- evident. This opinion has been acquiesced in by every 346 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges man of affairs to whom I have submitted the facts. College presidents and executives agree. But many of my friends among the instructors stand aghast at intro- ducing anything like business into their departments. They look upon administration as an enemy instead of an ally; a clog instead of a clarifier. Above all this, the instructors must learn and con- scientiously practice the new motto, "Team work, hard work and good work" but especially they must learn true team work. To that end they must realize that their power for evil is quite as great as their power for good within the college economy. Hence the instruct- ors must cordially welcome the new and separate de- partment of administration, and do all in their power to make it a success in the highest sense and for the highest ends of the college. There must be no lukewarm and grudging acquiescence in the new state of affairs, no anxiety to pick flaws, but rather a hearty and heartfelt sympathy with a difficult problem which is for the com- mon good. Moreover, as a matter of financial and other economy and efficiency, the teachers must give active as well as negative help in the field of adminis- tration. The problems of the latter are largely those which concern the former. Administration is neither the servant nor the master of college pedagogy, but rather its enthusiastic and trained friend and colaborer, striving to work out the highest aims and ideals of this new quasi state; by joint action, to get, in the intricacy of modern conditions, the same quality of results which the instructor working alone could accomplish under the simpler conditions of earlier times. Resume: The Keynote oj the College 347 And here let me repeat the expression of my deepest respect and regard for the teaching forces of our col- leges. There is no other body of our citizens whose lives are more devoted and unselfish, or whose work is harder, or whose reward seems relatively more inade- quate. I have sought to make my words, not hard, but plain; not to impugn motives, but methods. I would not add an ounce to your burdens, but rather lessen some, and show you new and modern devices for shift- ing and easing others. Your alumni cannot do your work for you and should not attempt to, but they can and will gladly show you new methods of meeting modern conditions and of making your labors more pleasant, efficient and rewarding. But you must decide whether you will adopt such methods. You are the arbiters of your own fate. We can suggest, but ulti- mately you must decide the result. You must be will- ing to forego some things to gain greater ends. You have been individualistic. You must learn to be co- operative. You must cordially, nay, eagerly, adopt and steadfastly carry out the modern world's great motto, "Team work, hard work and good work"; with the emphasis so far as you are concerned, let me say again, upon the team work; and this means team work with your associates in your own course, and in the faculty and in every other department of the college. Fifth. The student life department must next be considered under its twofold nature, the college com- munity life and the college home life, corresponding so closely to the business and home life of the ordinary citizen ; but modified somewhat by the fact that our col- 348 The Reorganization of Our Colleges lege citizens are not yet breadwinners, but are still more or less directly accountable to their parents who sup- port them. The reorganized college must first of all realize that it is dealing with men the picked young men of the country for whom it is responsible first of all to the country itself. They must be treated as men, and made to bear the burdens and responsibilities fitted to their strength, and suited to give them the same kind of dis- , cipline which many of their friends and contemporaries are obtaining in good business houses. At twenty to twenty-two, such picked men in ordinary business life would be bearing very weighty responsibilities, and bear- ing them well among men who were many years their seniors in years and experience. More and more the direct burden of the student government and public sentiment of the college and the care of its homes should be put upon the undergraduates, and in such a manner as to interest them in and prepare them for similar problems in their future lives. The investigation and care of its student life will be one great branch of college work, for on this ninety per cent of the undergraduate's time largely depend the results of the ten per cent passed in the presence of his teachers. The bounds limiting the college community and home lives will be clearly outlined and made known, and college justice will be administered by a student's peers. Why not recognize that there will be politics in every college, and teach our young men to play them on as clean, educational and helpful a scale as possible? Under no circumstances let us leave the discipline of the j Resume: The Keynote oj the College 349 individual to be voted upon by the body of the faculty. The final word should be with the president, or with some very small group that is in the closest touch and sympathy with the student body and the college homes. The college ideal should be to anticipate and prevent the need of discipline rather than to seek an opportunity to administer it. The college should follow the course of modern medicine which drains swamps and uses pre- ventives; or of modern business which avoids lawsuits by taking counsel beforehand. The college will study its own social and political problems as carefully as it does its educational, and will let the results be known. While it maintains a clean student atmosphere, it will remember that a large part of the preventive measures must be exerted in the home. Here it will avail itself of its natural allies, the parents and alumni. The fraternity owes it to its members to provide them with a good college home. But just as much does the college owe it to every student that he shall have a good home. In so far as the fraternities furnish truly good homes the college is fortunate in being relieved, to that extent, of this part of its duty. But its duty still re- mains, so far as it relates to the nonfraternity members, and must not be shirked. Surely the fraternities can- not complain if the college sets up, for its nonfraternity members, model homes which will put every fraternity on its mettle. The time must soon come when the fra- ternities, like the colleges, shall be sternly judged by their present-day results, not by their names or history or wealth. Let the colleges carefully investigate and 350 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges candidly publish the results in later life and other im- portant details as related to home life in the fraternity houses, the dormitories, town boarding houses or other college homes. Such use of the publicity bureau would draw attention to the true conditions and lead to im- portant reforms. Here again let competition be the life of good work. Every good fraternity ought to welcome the competi- tion of the college in a home-making experiment. If, with years of start and with manifold advantages, the fraternity home cannot hold its own, it deserves to go down. The fraternity may well be voted a failure if in the long run it cannot give to its members more than they can get in a home conducted by the college. The difficulty is that the college has seldom furnished any opportunity for such a competition. It has provided the barracks accommodation of a dormitory, or rele- gated its students to the cold comforts of a student boarding house in an overcrowded college town, but it has done substantially no home-making except in a few of the women's colleges. Let the college set up a model home, if it can, and most of its good features will be at once adopted by the fraternities, and the whole college home problem will be much nearer solution. But the college has much to learn from the experience of the fraternities and must copy many of the good social and home-making features of their homes. A college home must not be too large, and should have a good commons, and a cozy lounging room, and a good floor for dancing, and as many as possible of the things that go to make the fraternity houses homes, and not Resume: The Keynote of the College 351 dormitories or barracks. Until the college insures good homes to all its students, fraternity and nonfraternity alike, it has fallen short of its duty in rounding out the domestic and social side of the character of the future citizen, and in properly providing for a clean and help- ful college home life. Admittedly, municipal ownership is advisable in some things, such as the water supply. William H. Taft has put this thought as follows: "Where a general service to the public cannot be well discharged by private enterprise, and can be effectively and economically discharged by the government, the govern- ment should undertake it." In like manner, it may be advisable for the college to attempt the experiment, not so much of home-building as of home-making, on a small scale and in competition with the fraternities and the town boarding houses. Certainly such an attempt would be an interesting one and might have far-reaching results. As the institution must assure a right college atmos- phere and community life, it must as surely see to it that every fraternity or other unofficial college home is doing good work for the common good, and in such a way as to enable the college to fulfill its duty to the state, to education and to all its higher aims and ideals, and this duty should be discharged through the home- making forces of the home itself. The college home has its great functions as truly as the home of boyhood or manhood, and that student has lost a large part of the charm, educating and polishing of his course who has not felt and contributed to the in- 352 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges fluences of a fine college home life. Right here lies the power for good or evil of our college homes. Let us, as college men, rise above fraternities or in- stitutions, and determine that, as parents, alumni and citizens, we will join with all interested in our institu- tions of higher learning to set forward the cause of the college home life. The Home is greater than any one home or series of homes, and the College Home is more important than those of any institution or of any fra- ternity. Let every parent, sending his son to college, study the home life therein, and keep in touch with his son's col- lege home, and demand of the college that it shall take intelligent care of his college community and home life. Let us study the college home as a home, first, last and all the time, and then we shall be able to improve it along sane and effective lines, and give it its proper place between that of the father and that of the bread- winner; and we shall not be drawn off to side issues. Here, too, is another great field for cooperation and competition, with a proper credit given to those who do good work; for among the college homes, also, the motto applies: "Team work, hard work and good work." Sixth. As to the separate administrative depart- ment, we must remember that administration is an ex- pense and a nonproducer; that its principal aim is to make effective or available the productive work of others; and that it is chiefly designed to surround the producing elements with service conditions without which, in large concerns, they cannot work to the best advantage. Resume: The Keynote of the College 353 Let us also admit that a separate administrative de- partment in our colleges is a necessary evil or adjunct, which has become indispensable because of growth in numbers and the intricacy which comes with modern conditions. Hence this new department must be pro- portioned to the size of the institution and the number of its departments and courses. A department which would be sufficient in a small college would be entirely inadequate in a large one; a system that would work well in a large university would swamp a small college; what would be successful in a private or denominational college might utterly fail in a state institution. It re- quires genius to adjust an administrative system so that it will be neither too large nor too small; so that it shall not go into unnecessary minutiae, nor omit to cover im- portant details ; so that it shall be neither niggardly nor extravagant; and so that, while encouraging and re- warding the faithful, it shall detect the laggards. In a large sense, administration is a constant readjustment of the affairs of others and of its own methods. College administration is as yet in an experimental stage, and must be undertaken conservatively by each institution or group of institutions, until we have the rec- ords of enough experiments to provide data for gener- alization. These records should be upon the same gen- eral plan and be collected and collated by experts. There are certain things that ought to be thoroughly covered by the administrative department in every col- lege of, say, 300 or upward. It is a matter of discre- tion, depending upon the size and conditions of the institution, as to whether these matters shall be put un- 354 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges der the charge of distinct bureaus, or whether one man or bureau shall attend to several branches. For the sake of convenience, I shall treat the administrative de- partment under the heads of different bureaus, as must be done in our largest institutions. These suggestions are merely tentative, and in some instances would need considerable variations. These are the things which should be covered by the new department; the methods and forms by which these ends are to be reached are susceptible of many changes. A start in the proposed system has been made in many institutions, but never as a separate department recognized as coordinate and coequal with all the others. (i) The first bureau we may call that of statistics and forms. This should be under a skilled statistician, possibly the expert accountant already spoken of, but will embrace so many different subjects that it may re- quire subdivision. It will have charge of and collect and collate the statistics upon the following, among other, matters: (a) The general system of forms and blanks for use throughout the institution, and the particular forms necessary in any part of the institution to accomplish the general purpose of the college, (b) The prepara- tion and supervision of any system of blanks and forms required to collect any desired information or statistics. (c) The collecting of the general statistics of the college and its students, now largely covered by the office of the registrar, who should either be placed over this bureau or under its head, (d) The collection and collating of the results of the class-room work of each course and of Resume: The Keynote o) the College 355 each student and of each class of students, (e) The preparation and oversight of a comprehensive mark- ing system, and the collating and rendering its results readily available so as to furnish data upon the past, present and future work of each student. (/) A general account of stock of the whole college, taken at least yearly, possibly quarterly or monthly, and designed to get at the exact facts, whether favorable or unfavorable. This should also serve as the general bureau for inter- change of information within the college itself, and as the official bureau to collaborate with sister institutions. (2) The second bureau will be that of the college waste heap. Its duty will be carefully to examine and rectify the educational or other factors which, before, during and after a student's course, tend to produce bad work or prevent good work. This will call for a sharp analysis of the preparation, mental, moral and physi- cal, of those who come from the various preparatory schools, and hence of the schools themselves; of the in- fluences in the college itself which affect, adversely or otherwise, the general cause and course of education therein; of the reasons why individual students have not completed their course, and their subsequent history ; of the general success in after life of each graduate, and his suggestions based upon his own undergraduate experi- ence. This, or some other bureau, must collate the re- sults of various courses in the college, and advise with undergraduates as to their work and courses, and act in close touch with a faculty committee on scholarship. The waste in the teaching force is put under the seventh bureau. 356 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges (3) A third bureau must be that of college activities, which will study and be responsible for the college com- munity life and the general student atmosphere; which will keep in close touch with the outside activities of the college, and their effect upon pedagogical results and upon the college community and home life. It must be in sympathetic charge of the religious and moral welfare of the college as a whole, and must supplement its work by committees of the faculty and students. This bu- reau must work in the closest way with (4) That of the college home life, which must have charge, in a large yet intimate way, of the college homes and their highest interests, as those relate to their own inmates or to the course of education in the college it- self. These last two bureaus come partly within the province of the college dean, but that should not prevent the making of a distinct and wise provision for the bu- reaus of college activities and of the college home life. Whatever else happens, these two bureaus must be made the most of. (5) The bureau of health and physical exercises will not infringe upon the recognized teams and athletics of the college, but will care for the many students who are not on any team or under the direction of any trainer. It will make sure that every man in college has compulsory physical exercise, and graduates with a good physique and bodily health, and with a thorough knowledge of the kinds of exercise without apparatus which he can use in his office or home; that there are frequent and complete physical examinations of every undergraduate at unexpected times, and proper lectures Resume: The Keynote of the College 357 upon his physical constitution and its care, and upon his home duties and responsibilities in after life. This bureau will have the power, for instance, to prescribe boxing and fencing lessons for those hard students who lack physical force, or dancing lessons for those who need the social graces; for in such cases aggressiveness and self-confidence may be the chief things lacking to insure perfect usefulness in after years. This bureau will be in close touch with the medical and physical directors. (6) The sixth bureau, that of the graduate field, will seek to follow the alumni and see that they catch on in the world and make real progress therein. It will be on the lookout for opportunities, and be a clearing house for outsiders who are seeking the right college man for the right place in after years. It will study the curriculum from the light of results, and, through lectures from prominent alumni and others, will in- fluence the college community life by making the stu- dents understand the conditions that will face them after college and for which their college course must prepare them. Possibly this bureau may best be com- bined with the second, for their fields lie close together. (7) The seventh bureau, that of the college plant, will have a general oversight over the work of the teach- ing staff, to make sure that each member is doing his best work at the best advantage, that there are no drones, and that there is no preventable waste in the college machinery. Great care will be taken to develop and foster every influence helpful to higher intellectual and educational ideals and methods within the faculty, or 358 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges within its student body, or in the parts of the institution common to both faculty and students. If this bureau is undertaken in the proper spirit, and is made general throughout the colleges, it will be of great advantage to the preceptors, associate professors and other younger teachers, and to the institutions themselves; for a misfit in one college may be made a success in another, or an apparent failure may be made to do good work by some change of conditions in the same institution, and those who do good work will find sure recognition for their efforts, and the benumbing effects of the influences which now affect the lower-grade teacher will be persistently counteracted. This bureau must work in the closest touch with the president, and often only through him in delicate cases. (8) The eighth bureau will be that of publicity, which will not, as now, have the tendency to confine its work to advertising a successful coach, nor to improving the betting odds by sending out misleading reports as to the members of the teams or crews. It will insure that the educational work of the institution and of its best men is made known to the world; that parents and alumni are kept in close touch with present conditions, and that honor is given where honor is due. (9) Lastly there must be the Mark Hopkins or per- sonal-equation bureau ; though possibly this bureau will be embodied in the chief of the department himself, and thus thoroughly pervade the whole administration. Its motto must be along the line of the saying of the late Professor Park, of Andover Theological Seminary, who used to tell his students that it was not so important as Rtsume: The Keynote of the College 359 to how large a college a man had gone through, but rather how largely the college had gone through him. So far as the administrative department deals with administrative machinery, it is important, necessary and formative, but, after all, in this respect it is essen- tially an added expense. Its great glory and productive value will be in preserving and making truly effective the personal equation which was so vital an element in the training of the earlier college in its narrowness and poverty. Character - building and the power of the older man and scholar upon the younger man and stu- dent are the great things which stand out as we study these earlier temples of learning; and these must still be the great underlying ideals of our college training for citizenship. The college must more and more and ever more use and insure the use of the personal manhood and scholarship of the teacher to engender manhood and scholarliness, if not scholarship, in the taught. One great professor, every inch a man and equally a scholar, and preeminently a fructifying force for character and scholarliness, writes: "Your system seems to me to threaten over-organization and excessive centralization, harmful to teacher and student through killing spontaneity. When the college comes to be as completely organized as our most successful business cor- porations, is there not a risk that it will produce well made, accurately adjusted cogs and wheels, etc., for the great so- cial machine, rather than men of initiative, possessing in them- selves and respecting in others the disposition and power to grow each in his own way?" If this be so, then is my message a failure. The stu- dent who does not carry away from Alma Mater's halls 360 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges the deep impress upon his innermost life of some one or more great men and scholars has indeed missed the chief thing in his training for citizenship. Far better to leave college in one year with this impress than to leave it at the end of four years with merely a marking- system diploma. There is much of the machinery of a separate admin- istrative department which is of the most machine and perfunctory kind to accomplish machine results. The increasing extent of the college plant requires this. But the personal equation of the teacher is still the great character-building force in the course, whether it be one year or four in length, and the college as an institution exists that it may gather together the great collection of manhood and scholarliness and character-building force which is represented in the picked individuals of a good faculty. This power for character-building and schol- arliness is, after all, the true capital of the college not its funds, or its buildings, or its material wealth of any kind. All these latter things are as much mere me- chanical instruments as is its administrative department and machinery. Above all things, the college has no right to waste, unnecessarily, a single jot or tittle of its character and scholarship building capital. To min- imize any loss at this very point and in this very respect is the great duty of the personal-equation bureau. The loss in this respect is terribly and unnecessarily nay, even criminally great to-day under present college methods. Indeed the administrative department must have for its paramount aim to keep constantly em- ployed, at their utmost efficiency, every element of the Resume: The Keynote 0} the College 361 college economy and capital the funds, the buildings and other material plant; the impersonal machinery; the student life; most of all the college history and tra- ditions, and the college spirit, and the manhood and scholarship, individually and collectively, of the faculty. Here is where the college course is to guide the footsteps of the lad as he prepares to enter the larger life of his business or profession. Here is the point where the personal-equation bureau can collaborate most efficiently and payingly with the waste-heap bureau. Again and again we must remember that adminis- tration, except for definite uses and ends, is an unneces- sary and almost unproductive expense; but the admin- istration which gets additional return upon the college capital of men and character is not an unnecessary ex- pense, but rather a vital necessity if we would avoid a terrible waste of the most precious heritage of the in- stitution. And I would have this bureau exert itself most constantly and forcefully at the very beginning of the freshman year. This is the time of highest purpose and of least resistance to good moral influences. There is no doubt in my mind, from a fairly broad experience in college homes, that the average college graduate has higher ideals and hopes at the time when he enters col- lege than at any other time in his life. He has left home and the preparatory school with a feeling that he must now show what is in him, and that he is standing alone for the first time. In many cases he appreciates the serious inconveniences and even sacrifices which the loved ones at home are making for him. His ambitions are high and his purposes pure. It is at this time that 362 The Reorganization of Our Colleges both the college and the fraternity too often offer to him a stone. The harm done at this point of his develop- ment, when his community life is unfolding, may never be undone. But just as surely the good purposes, which are then regnant within him, may be solidified into per- manent character by the right treatment. It should be one of the high duties of the personal-equation bu- reau to insure that each undergraduate has the right surroundings and help at the critical periods throughout his college course but especially at its beginning. Over all and throughout all these bureaus, and in- spiring them all, will be the chief of the administrative department, who will soon come to be regarded as the most indispensable man in college, for he will be at the service of everyone. But most of all he and his depart- ment will be the chief exponents and champions of the college motto : " Team work, hard work and good work." He will be the master spirit in keeping up enthusiasm for higher things. He will be proud of his system, not because it is complete, or intricate or scientific, but be- cause it does things, and makes the crooked straight and the rough places plain, and restores individual training in the college. He will be wise enough and broad enough and strong enough to vary his system when it works badly, to ease it if it bears too harshly at any one point and to improve it constantly. This de- partment and its head will be the right hand of the president, making it possible for him to formulate and carry out new and higher policies without the nervous wear and tear that must otherwise ensue. Seventh. But the president must be a man trained Resume: The Keynote of the College 363 to avail himself of a scientifically conducted administra- tive department. Possibly this may result in our having and requiring a scientific business and factory training for college presidents; for the president of the reorgan- ized college must be, not only a great man by nature, but one especially trained to assume so high a position and to safeguard interests that mean so much to the com- monwealth and to all within it. It will also be of great advantage if he shall have acted for a few years as the traveling secretary of a fraternity, and thus have sym- pathetically studied, from the undergraduates* stand- point, the student life of many institutions. Eighth. As there must be a distinct cleavage between the various departments of the college, so there must be an increasingly distinct differentiation between the college and the university or graduate schools, and the statistics gathered by our administrative department will enable us to work this out more scientifically and satisfactorily. Ninth. The functions of the board of control or of trustees will be carefully worked out, so that the board shall help in a large way, rather than hinder, the best possible internal administration of the affairs of the col- lege by the several departments which are on the ground and directly responsible for results. Reorganization will not imply a shifting of old faces, but rather a bringing in of new forces and the intro- duction of new methods looking toward like, but even higher, ends than were formerly possible. The re- organizer will be the coach who can show those within the institution how to put into effect team work, hard work and good work. 364 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges Tenth. The one subject which now is required of every student in every course and every college is English To this will be added another citizenship. If anything, this should be considered the more important of the two, and should be taught in connection with the actual government of the student body and activities. There should be a department of citizenship in its largest sense, just as there is a department of English. The prime object of this course should be to inculcate the highest ideals and exercise of citizenship. It should be a freshman study, and eventually an entrance require- ment also. The college should be governed, as far as possible, upon the model of the state, with its upper and lower houses for legislation, and its legislative, judiciary and financial systems to control student activities. The college should not study to see how little of real power it can give over to the student government, but how far it can perform its duty to the commonwealth by forcing these embryo citizens to learn and exercise those civic, public and political functions and duties upon which the future well-being of the state may at some time or place depend. The exercise of the franchise or of stu- dent activity should be extended as far as possible, and be made compulsory and a requisite for advancement in college. The course in citizenship should be the most important in the institution; it should be founded upon and work in the college home, the college community and the college state; and thus teach concretely the things which go to make a clean and cultured father, husband and friend, a successful professional or busi- ness man, and an upright and energetic citizen and prac- Resume: The Keynote o) the College 365 tical politician in the sense that Lincoln and McKinley were great practical politicians. All this would help to make clearer to every undergraduate the true aim of his college education to enable him to find himself and to train him for after life in the different planes of that life as a citizen. It has been well said that over the portals of every educational institution should be written the word " Service"; and surely this is true, preeminently, of our colleges and their training for citizenship. McClure's Magazine for October, 1908, shows how, in our country, "One type of citizen men of force and enterprise un- surpassed in the history of the world by adapting the dis- coveries of the most inventive century of the world to the uses of commerce, have massed together in the past half century a chain of great cities upon the face of a half savage continent, and left them to the government of the Euro- pean peasant saloon-keeper," who has become a political leader among the immi- grants who have stopped and swarmed in our cities. Hence while " the commercial enterprise of these cities has been the marvel of the world, their government has reached a point of moral degradation and inefficiency scarcely less than Oriental." The charge is true, in part because the colleges have not of later years distinctly trained for citizenship, es- pecially upon the high plane of duty toward the state. It is not too late for them to mend and to assume their former leadership, but no time must be lost. I am not afraid to repeat that the earlier college course trained for a broad, clean and efficient citizenship in all 366 The Reorganization of Our Colleges its planes, and not for marks; that for many years past the college course has trained chiefly for marks and a leveling and low-grade diploma; that henceforth the keynote of the college course must be training for citizenship quite regardless of its diploma value; and that this keynote, which will not be an easy one to strike, must be kept constantly before every individual and course and department of the college through a separate administrative department, acting as the pro- fessional coach and having for its motto: "Team work, hard work and good work." CHAPTER XXXIII CAN WE HAVE A NEW FORM OF AMERICAN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY? POSSIBLY this radical reorganization of our indi- vidual institutions may be our opportunity to give our higher education a new and strictly American form and content. Possibly the present seething mass is not so chaotic as it seems, but may be permeated with a spirit of new life and growth, which, as so often before, will bring great and concrete gains out of apparent con- fusion. The first form of our college was taken almost en- tirely from English schools and colleges, not univer- sities. The present form of university-college has been largely affected by the Germanic ideals. It is now time for us to work out new ideals of the American college and university which, while standing on the earlier foundations, shall be the products of and in entire ac- cord with our own modern civilization and social and educational conditions. Let us not be ashamed if this be a typically American business reorganization of our institutions of higher learning, closely following the plans which have been so successful in our great com- mercial corporations, and using the same human agen- cies which have so often succeeded in other fields. Cer- 367 368 The Reorganization of Our Colleges tainly we have had sufficiently bad net results from the ecclesiastico-germanic, pedagogical methods, and almost anything would be better than that which we have yet worked out. If we are to undertake this greater task of remodelling our system as well as of reorganizing our individual institutions, let us immediately proceed on the broad lines of the engineer or architect, and lay out our scheme in its entirety. In building, alterations are expensive. Let us, then, spend time and money to get our plans right before we begin permanent construction. There is much clearing of the ground which can and should be done at once, and at any cost. This should be done by the various institutions for themselves; but the final plan must provide for a solid foundation and a super- structure worthy of our time and country, adapted to use all our present material, and sufficient for our present and future wants. The first thing is the formulation of a definition of the college and of the university. Is it improper for a lay- man to suggest that this should be a definition which defines, rather than one which begs the question and misleads the public and everyone connected with higher learning? If there can be a sharp cleavage between the college and the university, well and good. But if that is impossible for the present, let us at least work out a definition, and build up to it as the years go on. A good definition helps to clarify our ideas upon the mat- ter defined, and sometimes prevents fraud. The law knows the great value of a definition for such purposes, and accordingly the statutes are filled with exact defini- New Form of College and University 369 tions of rights, and kinds of property, and as well of kinds of frauds and crimes, and of the duties and limita- tions of the citizen, etc. For example, in New York State, the statute provides that "No corporation shall be hereafter organized under the laws of this state, with the word trust, bank, banking, in- surance, assurance, indemnity, guarantee, guaranty, sav- ings, investment, loan or benefit as part of its name, except a corporation formed under the banking law or the insurance law." ' Probably it is too much to hope that for the present a definite meaning will be given by statute to the words "college" and "university," and their improper use for- bidden; but this is something that we may aspire to in the future when our ideas and ideals of higher educa- tion have been raised and clarified. We have spent much time, thought and money in differentiating our kindergartens, and primary, grammar and high schools, and we tell of the ages of the children which each of those grades should cover. Possibly we shall even- tually be able to get a satisfactory definition of the higher members of our educational institutions. At the same time we shall come to understand clearly that the colleges and universities are not a matter of years but of different stages of mental growth and education. The place of the college will be fixed and understood, and there will be a distinct kind of teaching especially adapted to college work, and well differentiated from the teaching in university or graduate schools. Such a plan, which shall intelligently define the place 1 Corporation Law, 6. 370 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges and scope of the college, can be fully and adequately- worked out only by the fullest cooperation of high- school, college and graduate-school teachers and prin- cipals; of the educational institutions themselves, and of the great educational funds, and of the general and state governments; of broadminded professional men and equally broadminded business men; of those who know what is due to the state, the institution, the teacher, the pupil, the citizen and the family. Such a plan must provide for training accurate and fine schol- ars, broad thinkers, patriotic and efficient citizens, splendid professional men, and leaders in every walk of life, that thereby the college and university may do their full duty. The plan must also provide against all kinds of waste; for avoidable waste in the college is criminal in the highest sense. By intelligent training we must fit strong men and thinkers to help us meet the critical social and political questions which con- front us at home and abroad. There is no greater problem before our country to-day than to formulate the ideal of the new American college and university, for, until this is done, college reorganization, as dis- cussed herein, must be largely a dream. Individual in- stitutions will not often have the courage to lay the ax to the root of the tree, and the work will proceed in a desultory manner. But if a more or less comprehensive plan can be devised, public sentiment and college pride will work together, as in the past, to bring most institu- tions to the highest level to which, at the time, they are capable of rising. Competition is the life of our college world to-day, and competition in a race for a perfect New Form oj College and University 371 realization of our new ideal would accomplish more than any other agency to bring about a universal im- provement in conditions. But this new and comprehensive ideal can be for- mulated only through a board of uniquely equipped experts of recognized standing, acting for a number of years, on adequate salaries and with an adequate ex- pense fund. They must not only have the ability to dissect and analyze present conditions, but be qualified for one of the greatest pieces of constructive work and reorganization ever undertaken. The cause of educa- tion in this country, the parents and the children, the great industries and professions, all who are interested in the question of education and that is everyone in this broad land should unite to bring about such a magnificent and comprehensive plan for doing our full duty to our country and to the generations yet unborn. We should not rest content until we have formulated and worked out this great monument to the construct- ive genius of our country, and especially adapted to her peculiar wants and characteristics. Such a board might eventually become the governmental agency for testing and comparing our great institutions and their methods and results, and thus aid and force everyone to better and better work. There must be the great principle and motto of team work, hard work and good work underlying alike our football, our individual col- lege and our new ideal of the great series of institutions originating in American conditions and adjusted to American needs and problems. Its successful appli- cation in any of these fields will make it easier to apply 372 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges it successfully in the others, if we only turn to the very best that there is in what we are attempting to do. It is proper that the general government, or some agency upon its behalf, should be directly concerned in formulating our new conception of the American college and university. Great as have been the duties of these institutions to the state in the past, the calls upon them in the future must be much greater, and the colleges must be constituted accordingly. They must be quali- fied in every way to be the leaders in our great reforms, but to this end they must clean up their own houses. Meanwhile, each institution must at once undertake the formation of an up-to-date administrative depart- ment, and from that as a starting point provide for the cleaning up and ennobling of its college homes and its general student life. In these things it must cordially collaborate with its natural rivals and competitors, whose local surroundings must much resemble its own. And it must not be surprised if it finds that in its new attempt to build up a modern, adequate administrative department, it has to turn to business men or public accountants for the experience which no pedagogue can furnish. The distinct differentiation and development of the college state, the college community and the college home will add three new factors of strength to enable us to work out the problems presented in these three planes of the life of the student citizen. First. If our college education is to be distinctly nationalized, and to be primarily for the training of problem solvers and thinkers in citizenship and clean f UNlVtH V v^/^L.; New Form of College and University 373 manhood, it follows that the institutions which fully adopt this new ideal may be entitled to direct national or state aid. In the past the nation, the states and the local municipal governments have given generously in educational crises or to provide permanent funds for educational purposes. Possibly the same thing will be done again if help is needed in an endeavor to formulate a new system and ideal of higher education. Second. If the colleges are to reorganize their com- munity life upon true business principles, they will call for and get the aid of their best business alumni and of a high grade of noncollege business men, who will take a new interest in the institutions which are thus to undertake a new work in preparing their undergradu- ates for business and the professions. This aid will be even greater than any that can be given by the state. Third. But if the institutions of higher learning are to reorganize their college homes, they will call for and surely have the cordial cooperation of the parents of the land, who now too often and too justly look askance at a course in college; and who shall say that the aid, financial and otherwise, of the parents will not be the greatest of all? It will largely include the alumni and will force action by the state. The state, the community and the home these three; but the greatest of these is the home. APPENDIX APPENDIX No. I 1 Your Committee believe that if the Association is to un- dertake as they think it should undertake the standard- ization of American universities, another criterion should also be enforced. The policy contemplated has to do with the conditions of admission to professional courses. Your Committee are of the opinion that the best American uni- versities will in the future rest their professional courses on a basis of college work, which shall range from one to four years, and that the professional student will spend at least five or six years in study from the day he matriculates in the college to the day he receives his professional degree. Your Committee accordingly recommend that the Association adopt as a second criterion for membership the requirement of one or more years of college work as a prerequisite for admission to professional courses, the combination being so- arranged that no professional degree shall be given until the satisfactory completion of at least five years of study. The ideal of your Committee is the combination of this requirement with the present requirement of a strong grad- uate school as a condition for membership in this Associa- tion. But they recognize that a strict enforcement of both requirements might work substantial hardship at the present time. Nevertheless they think that in universities which have professional schools and a graduate department it is not too much to ask at the present time that the graduate department shall be at least creditable and that the arts and technical work prescribed for professional degrees in at 1 Page 6. 377 378 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges least one professional school shall be not less than five years. It is the thought of your Committee that if this dual stand- ard of admission be now accepted by the Association it may be possible to enforce it with increasing strictness as the years go by. They feel, however, that a step of the utmost importance would be taken if the Association now insisted on the dual requirement, even though in administering it concessions were, for a few years, made to some universities which were strong in the one direction, but not so fully de- veloped in the other. Your Committee are of the opinion that American universities cannot be justly standardized with reference to graduate departments alone; the require- ment of a general or liberal education as a prerequisite to professional study along with an extension of the period of study for professional students being, in the estimation of the Committee, an important consideration. They are of the opinion that American universities should be standardized with reference to these two criteria. APPENDIX No. II 1 "The number of students, or the 'bigness* of the college or university, is probably the most useful method of classi- fication. But in regard to the number of students one finds a range continuous from institutions with fifty students to institutions with five thousand, and if in this continuous series arbitrary lines are drawn, the groups thus made put together institutions whose consideration, side by side, could serve no useful purpose; for instance, Johns Hopkins Univer- sity with the University of Southern California, Yale Uni- versity with the Temple College, and Williams College with Maryville College. 1 Page 7. Appendix 379 "The size of the teaching staff would naturally be con- sidered a more scientific method of classification, but here again there is a continuous gradation from institutions with five to institutions with five hundred teachers, and groups selected on this basis would result in such incongruities as placing Valparaiso University with Leland Stanford Junior University, Union College, Nebraska, with Amherst College, and Howard College at Birmingham, Alabama, with Ripon College. "The maintenance of professional schools might be con- sidered as a significant line of cleavage, but such a means of demarcation, which would put in the supposedly less im- portant group Princeton, Brown, Wesleyan, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Trinity (Hartford), and in the higher group such institutions as Hamline University, Epworth University, Baylor University, Kansas City University, and some forty or fifty other essentially minor institutions, cannot be con- sidered an illuminating classification. "The presence of a certain number of resident graduate students is a significant feature of an institution for higher education, and might be used to advantage in a classification if graduate students in the various institutions had to com- ply with similar requirements before being enrolled. It is true that the graduate student must have received a college degree, but a collegiate degree in the United States means anything from a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science of such an institution as the Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio, up to the bachelor of arts and bachelor of science of such universities as Columbia and the University of Chicago. Until the collegiate degrees begin to have a definite mean- ing, it will be futile to base any classification upon the graduate schools, which essentially rest upon these de- grees." ' Carnegie Foundation Bulletin, No. Two, p. 2. 380 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges The classification by the amount of the annual income is shown to be equally unsatisfactory. "Since American colleges and universities fail under any system of classification to fall into natural groups, the only available method is to choose arbitrarily a system which is most useful for the purpose in view." APPENDIX No. Ill 1 CONSTITUTION OF THE BOARD OF STUDENT REP- RESENTATIVES APPROVED BY THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL, APRIL ai, 1908. ARTICLE I There is hereby constituted a board to be known as The Board of Student Representatives of Columbia University. ARTICLE II The object of this Board shall be: (1) To furnish a representative body of men who, by vir- tue of their position and influence in student affairs, shall be able to express the opinion and wishes of the students. (2) To encourage student activities, to make regulations for the control and conduct of the same, and to decide mat- ters of dispute between student organizations, in so far as the exercise of these functions does not conflict with Uni- versity legislation. (3) To provide a suitable medium through which student opinion may be presented to the University authorities. ARTICLE III The Board shall consist of nine members; one to be elected from the College, by vote of College students; one to be elected from the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chem- 1 Page 78. Appendix 381 istry, by vote of students of those Schools; one to be elected from the School of Law by vote of Law students; and six to be elected, without restriction of School, from the student body at large, as provided for in Article VI of this Constitu- tion. The Board so elected shall assume office on the day after Commencement; and shall hold office during the en- suing academic year. Six members of the Board shall con- stitute a quorum. ARTICLE IV (1) To be eligible for election from the College a student must be, at the time of the election, a regularly matriculated student in the College and of Junior standing. (2) To be eligible for election from the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry a student must be, at the time of the election, a regularly matriculated member of the Third Year Class in one of such Schools. (3) To be eligible for election from the School of Law a student must be, at the time of the election, a regularly matriculated student in such School intending to continue his studies therein during the ensuing year. (4) To be eligible for election from the student body at large, a student must be at the time of the election a regu- larly matriculated student in Columbia University intending to continue his studies therein during the ensuing year. ARTICLE V Each candidate for election from (a) the College (b) the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry (c) the School of Law must be nominated by a member of that student body which the candidate represents, and must be seconded by at least nine other members of that body. 382 The Reorganization of Our Colleges Each candidate for election from (d) the student body at large must be nominated by a member of the student body and sec- onded by nine others, but no restriction of School is imposed. All nominations must be filed in writing in the office of the Registrar at least two weeks before the first day of the election period. Nominations not complying with these conditions shall not be considered. ARTICLE VI The members of the Board shall be chosen at elections held as follows: (1) During the first week of the second half of the aca- demic year, the student bodies of (a) the College, (b) the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry, (c) the School of Law, shall each elect a representative to membership on the Board of the following year, with the privilege of at- tending without vote ail meetings of the then active Board. (2) During the last week of April of the same academic year there shall be held a general election, open to the entire student body of the University, at which the remaining six members of the new Board shall be elected. (3) At each election all voting shall be by ballot only and conducted through the office of the Registrar. The election period during which balloting may take place shall extend over three days between the hours of 9 A.M. and 5 P.M. of each day. In the elections provided for in Section i of this Article, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes in each election shall be considered elected. In the general election provided for in Section 2 of this Article, the six candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be considered elected. (4) The Board shall have the power to fill any vacancy arising in its membership between elections. Appendix 383 ARTICLE VII The officers of the Board shall be a Chairman and a Sec- retary-Treasurer, who shall hold office for one year. The Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer shall be elected by a majority vote of the Board at its first regular meeting, which meeting shall be held on the day following Commencement. The Chairman shall preside at meetings. In the event of his absence, the Board may elect a Chairman pro tern. The position of Chairman shall carry with it no prerogatives be- yond those of an ordinary member, except in cases where the Chairman shall be authorized and instructed at a meeting of the Board. The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep minutes of the meet- ings of the Board, shall have custody of its records and funds and shall conduct its correspondence. ARTICLE VIII The Board of Student Representatives shall have the right : (1) To nominate two undergraduate members of the Uni- versity Committee on Athletics, subject to the approval of the President of the University. (2) To confer with any officer, or representatives of any recognized body of officers, of the University, on matters of peculiar interest and concern to the student body; and it shall furthermore be the right of the Board to receive early notice regarding contemplated legislation primarily affecting the extracurricular activities of the student body. (3) To refer to the President of the University for consid- eration matters of peculiar interest and concern to the stu- dents. ARTICLE IX The Board shall have authority, and it shall be its duty to take into consideration, on its own motion, or upon charges 384 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges preferred, the conduct of any student or body of students which may seem detrimental to the interest or the good name of the University; and having conducted an investiga- tion, shall itself take, or, where necessary, recommend to the appropriate authorities, such action as it deems just and reasonable, to the end that such detrimental conduct shall be properly reprehended and any repetition of it prevented. ARTICLE X Subject to the reserved power of the University authorities, this Board shall exercise control over all inter-class affairs and intramural sports. The Board shall take charge of all class and general elec- tions, and shall have the power to appoint the tjmes for holding class elections and all inter-class contests. ARTICLE XI Any petition submitted through the Board shall receive official acknowledgment and shall be acted upon by the appropriate authorities as soon as may be practicable. ARTICLE XII A report of the Board shall be submitted annually to the President of the University on or before June 3oth. ARTICLE XIII This Constitution may be amended, upon written notice of not less than five days to all members of this Board, by vote of seven members of the Board, such amendment, before becoming effective, to be ratified by the student body and the University Committee on Student Organi- zations. Appendix 385 APPENDIX No. IV 1 "It will be evident to one who examines with care the status of the American college professor that the low scale of salaries which obtain in most institutions is due in no small measure to the multiplication of weak and unnecessary colleges. No two causes have had a larger share in bring- ing down the financial reward of the teacher and of taking away from the dignity of his position than the tendency to multiply the number of colleges with little regard to standards and the tendency to expand the curriculum over an enor- mous variety of subjects without regard to thoroughness. A college of ten professors who are strong teachers, com- manding fair compensation, and teaching only such sub- jects as they can teach thoroughly, is a far better center of intellectual life than a college which seeks with the same in- come to double the number of professors and to expand the curriculum to include in a superficial way the whole field of human knowledge. It is a true college that chooses to add to its curriculum only so fast as it can provide fair sal- aries for the work already in hand. It is clear from the statistics of institutions given in this Bulletin that the low grade of college salaries in a certain group of American institutions is due to the attempt to maintain a university with an income which is adequate only to the maintenance of a good college. The scholarly atmosphere maintained at some institutions, whose smaller income has placed them in the second group of institutions for which statistics are presented, is fairly well connected with the relatively high salaries they pay to professors. "The payment of a fair salary to the teacher is also directly connected with the output of scholarly work and the advance of research among college and university teachers. 1 Page 199. 386 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges A large proportion of the teachers in American universities are engaged in turning the grindstone of some outside em- ployment with one hand whilst they carry on the work of the teacher with the other. Owing to the rise in the cost of living the proportion of teachers who seek to increase their incomes in this way is very large. The method of organiza- tion of the American university also throws a large amount of executive [administrative] work upon members of the faculty. For this extra compensation is sometimes paid. Both processes cut down the opportunity for scholarly study and take away from the dignity, simplicity and high-mind- edness of the teacher's calling." "Colleges are beginning to discuss with seriousness the need of strong teachers as distinguished from the need for material equipment. This fact itself is a hopeful indication of educational progress. A movement is on foot among all of the better institutions to make the salary of the teacher approximate what might be called the line of comfort." 2 "The most important thing in regard to the income of. college teachers, in relation to the cost of living in the com- munity in which the college is situated, is whether the salary paid by the college is above or below the indispensable line of comfort. In every community there is a certain sum which represents what a man with a family needs to pay his landlord, his butcher, his grocer and his tailor. This sum must be fixed having in mind the quarter of the town in which the college professor should live, how his table should be provided, and what his wife and children should wear. These requirements need not be luxuriously provided for, but they should be provided for as a well-educated and refined man needs they should be. If the institution in which he teaches pays the professor a few hundred dollars 1 Carnegie Foundation Bulletin, No. Two, p. vii. 2 1 bid. , p. viii. Appendix 387 above this minimum line of comfort, he is free from worry, his family life is cheerful, he can give the best that is in him to his institution and its students. An income only a few hundred dollars below this level puts the professor in a situation involving worry and anxiety. Heretofore little has been done to fix salaries in respect to any fair or even possible line of comfort. And it has therefore happened that at the same time when small economies in salaries have lowered an entire faculty into discontent and inefficiency, an amount sufficient to raise the teaching body into an atmos- phere of content and cheerful work has been spent in facing the campus buildings with marble, and in giving to the ath- letic field the appearance of a Roman amphitheater." * "The question of the method of the appointment of men to places requiring a high degree of skill and a wide range of culture is difficult and no method has probably been devised which insures that the right man may always be chosen. The objection to the choosing of professors by a president, even assuming a consultation with his immediate advisers, is open, among other objections, to the very serious one that the choice is usually narrowed to a limited number of persons when there might be men excellently qualified whose names are never mentioned. In obtaining men for high technical places under the Federal Government through the Civil Service, chiefs of divisions are often surprised at the discovery of men who had been hitherto entirely unknown out- side of their own regions, but of a very high order of ability. "The effort made to overcome this difficulty which has been adopted in the choosing of professors in the Italian universities and which has shown excellent results is the following. "When a vacancy occurs in a professorship in an Italian university, the Minister of Public Instruction advertises the 1 Carnegie Foundation Bulletin No. Two, p. 36. 388 The Reorganization of Our Colleges vacancy in the journal of the department and bulletins an- nouncing the existence of the vacancy are posted in uni- versities or in other places likely to attract the notice of possible candidates. Any person may apply for the position. His application must be accompanied by certain biograph- ical information, together with a complete statement of his record as a teacher and of his scientific or literary activities. His publications must accompany the application. All ap- plications must be made within a certain date. "In order to decide between the applicants a jury is se- lected, the faculty of each university in the country being invited to vote for members of the jury, these being neces- sarily professors of the same subjects or of a kindred sub- ject to that in which the vacancy occurs. Each faculty votes for five jurors. The Minister of Public Instruction chooses five names from amongst ten having the highest votes. The applications of the candidates are then turned over to this jury. They report to the Minister three names in the order of merit and the appointment is offered to the first; if he refuses, to the second; and if he refuses, to the third. "It should be mentioned that in exceptional cases the faculty of the institution in which the vacancy occurs may request the filling of the vacancy by a direct call to another professor of the same subject in another university. " In sharp contrast to this method of choice there has been developed in nearly all American institutions a system of in- breeding under which young graduates are appointed as- sistants, and then advanced to instructorships, and later are promoted to the faculty." ' 1 Carnegie Foundation Bulletin No. Two, p. 56. Appendix 389 APPENDIX No. V 1 Much space is devoted by the Carnegie Foundation to the dissimilarity of remuneration among the instructors. "Columbia University and Harvard University have al- most the same number of persons in their teaching forces, 559 and 573 respectively, and about an equal proportion of each force are professors. The average salaries at Harvard for the full professors and for the assistant professors are higher than are the average salaries at Columbia for the full professors and for the adjunct professors; yet the total annual amount expended by Columbia in salaries to the in- structing staff is $300,000 larger than is the similar expendi- ture by Harvard University. After making allowance for the salary budget appropriated by Radcliffe College (Bar- nard College being included in the figures for Columbia University) this excess of the Columbia budget is equal to the total annual income received by an institution of the size of Dartmouth College. At least half of this difference between the salary expenditures at Columbia and at Harvard is due to the difference in the salaries paid in the teaching grades below faculty rank. The average instructor at Harvard re- ceives $753 a year less than the average instructor at Co- lumbia, and in the grade of assistant the difference between the two college departments is about $150. There is also a considerable difference between the average salary of the junior officer at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia, and the similar average for the Medical School of Harvard. These amounts of $750 and $150 do not seem much in themselves, but when they are multiplied by the large number of teachers who in a great university such as Harvard hold the titles of instructor and assistant, the re- sult is a saving of about $130,000 a year, enough to pay all 'Page 293. 390 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges the salaries of all the professors and of all the other teachers at either Brown University, or at Wellesley or at Vassar." As to varying instructional demands upon the teaching force of different institutions, the Bulletin says (p. 49) : "This variation amongst institutions is a very important fact. Why should one institution of those given in Table II need three times as many teachers per hundred students as another institution, or inversely, how can one of them get along with a third as large a staff per hundred students as another has? Should one college provide five times as many (or as few) teachers to a hundred students as another? This great variability may mean (i) great differences in the educational problems met by different institutions, all doing their work with the same adequacy, or it may mean (2) that the resources of some are inadequate, or it may mean (3) that the resources of some are not perfectly employed, or it may mean a combination of two or three of these con- ditions. A painstaking investigation of the exact condition of the staff, students, and curriculum in each institution is evidently very much needed." Again the Bulletin says (p. 62): "The amount of teaching which institutions of different grades calling themselves colleges or universities exact of a professor, an assistant professor or an instructor, varies so greatly with the standards of the institution and the status of education in its region that it is impossible to give any complete statement concerning it without a full list of the professors of each institution, the number of recitation peri- ods and the amount of laboratory work assigned to them. In general it may be said that the full professor in the stronger universities is called upon to give from six to twelve hours a week of lectures or recitations, counting two hours of laboratory or seminar exercises as equivalent to one hour of lecture or recitation. In the better smaller universities Appendix 391 and colleges from twelve to fifteen hours a week of lectures and recitations are counted as the ordinary work of a pro- fessor. In a number of institutions as many as twenty-five hours a week of recitations and lectures are demanded. Such excessive demands upon the professor are invariably associated with low standards, the effort for numbers and the widespread attempt in American colleges to give instruction in every conceivable study. The number of teaching hours a week imposed upon the teacher and the amount of admin- istrative detail added to them are directly related not only to the question of good teaching but also to the possibilities of the teacher for study, for growth and for scholarly pro- ductiveness. The present bulletin was compiled from data dealing with the financial status of the teacher in the higher institutions. A statement concerning matters relating to the scholarly status of the professor will be prepared later." At another point the Bulletin says (p. 51): "Nor will anyone informed concerning higher education deny that the teaching resources of some institutions are inadequate. The significance of our data lies in the fact that unless there is some waste in some institutions, there is an enormous inadequacy in others. After making every allowance for differences in the proportion of part-time pro- fessors and assistants, for differences in the character of the work, and the like, it seems strange that we should find among institutions doing work of approximately equal difficulty, some with a provision of over twice as many teachers as others. "This fact is, perhaps, the most important one that ap- pears in comparing institutions for higher education. It leads at once to this question, ' Given a college of liberal arts and sciences, or a medical school, or a law school of a certain size, what is the number of teachers that the administrative authority has a right to demand of the financial authorities for the proper conduct of the work/ and to the further ques- 39 2 The Reorganization of Our Colleges tion, ' Given a certain sum for salaries for such a college or school of a certain size, how much must be sacrificed in the quality of the teachers in order to get enough teachers?' "If the country as a whole could afford a teacher for every three university students, it might be wise economy; but if the country as a whole can afford only one for eleven, it may be a waste for one institution to have many more than its share. There is presumably an optimum proportion of instructors to students, movement toward which brings increasing educational returns for each teacher added, and movement beyond which brings diminishing returns. "Some university teachers will deny this doctrine of di- minishing returns, and very many of them will deny that any institution in this country has passed beyond this opti- mum proportion. The matter needs investigation, but the experience of elementary and secondary education and the general facts of human nature support the belief that, after the groups in which students are divided for instruction reach a certain minimum, further division produces very little educational gain. Indeed, there is some support for the belief that a class of fifteen students in the majority of undergraduate or professional subjects is absolutely better than a class smaller in number and that a seminar or pro- seminar or other specialized course is more efficient with eight students than with less. In any event it is as much the duty of the educational administration to use funds econom- ically as it is the duty of society to provide more money for higher education. With all due regard to the necessity of presenting a wide range of subjects for study and of giving students close personal attention, it seems proper that an increase of the staff of a university beyond twelve men for a hundred students, or of the staff of a college beyond nine men for a hundred students, should be regarded not, as it Appendix 393 now is, as an unmixed good, but as a step that may demand justification as truly as would an equal decrease. "The second question suggested by the great variation in the number of students per instructor was, ' Given a cer- tain sum for salaries for a university or college of a given size, how much must be sacrificed in the quality of the teachers in order to have enough teachers?' As a concrete sample of this problem let us suppose an undergraduate college like that for men at Princeton, or for women at Mt. Holyoke, to have enrolled 200 freshmen, 160 sophomores, 150 juniors, and 140 seniors, a total of 650, and to have an allowance for salaries of $70,000. Shall it employ 80 teachers at an aver- age salary of less than $900, or 60 teachers at an average salary of nearly $1,200, or 40 teachers at an average salary of nearly $1,800? In the first case it can provide twice as many courses or give each member of the staff only half as many hours of teaching as in the last case. Keeping the latter alike in both cases it could offer say 300 courses in the first case, and only 1 50 in the second. "Suppose the allowance for salaries to be the relatively high one of $140,000. Shall the institution have a staff of 80 at an average salary of $1,800 or a staff of 60 at an aver- age salary of $2,400, or a staff of 40 at an average salary of $3,600, with consequences as before to the amount of teach- ing of each member of the staff, or to the variety of the courses offered to the students? "The figures concerning the number of students per in- structor strongly support the criticism that the American colleges and universities are offering too many courses. One three-thousand-dollar man teaching a class of thirty- six students probably means better progress in education than two fifteen-hundred-dollar men each teaching eighteen of the thirty-six. With a given sum to spend and a given number of students, salaries can be increased only by di- 394 The Reorganization 0} Our Colleges minishing the number of courses taught by an individual. Either of these alternatives seems preferable to leaving sal- aries at their present low level, and the former seems feasible without any alarming loss in the adequacy of college curric- ula to the need of college students. 1 'One may well hesitate to oppose any widening of the scope of an institution's offering in science and letters. But the educational welfare of the students is in the long run more dependent on the quality of the teaching profession than on all other causes. And the increase of courses is not mainly due to greater needs of the student body. On the contrary, it may be irrational. "The professor at the head of a department is usually a specialist, zealous for the subject he loves, not interested in and unacquainted with the facts of university economy. He is eager to see his department flourish and to that end adds courses. He dislikes to have a student wish for a cer- tain course in his junior year because it is for economy given only biennially. Often he fails to appreciate that biennial courses may mean a doubled salary allowance per man. He does not feel quite justified in demanding a greater salary for himself, even though he is wasting the uni- versity's energy in copying quotations, building fires and hunting about the town for a cheap tailor. But he feels it his duty to beg for an additional man in the department. He is, perhaps, conscious that better men, and hence higher salaries, must be the means of advancing his or other de- partments in the long run, but whenever the question is pro- visionally raised he tends to take the line of least resistance and ask for an addition which will not bring up the question of raising the institution's scale of salaries. "The college president, while more appreciative of the general issue, tends likewise to take the line of least resis- tance. A thousand dollars five times is easier to ask for Appendix 395 than five thousand dollars once. Ever hoping that the finan- cial authorities will follow his broad recommendations to raise the salary schedule, he makes specific recommendations for increasing the number of courses, which in the end make consent to his appeal for a higher schedule impossible. Moreover he, too, is ambitious for the growth of his institu- tion; he loves to see it do every desirable thing that other institutions do; he finds it easier to get more courses than to get better men. "In some cases there has been on the part of heads of de- partments and heads of colleges nothing less than a passion to increase the variety of courses and the size of the staff. A course is given though only five out of a thousand students take it, and though these five would probably be as much profited by some other course already offered. Yet to give that course is to withhold an increase of twenty or twenty- five per cent to some individual's salary. No institution for higher education in this country should, with its present salary schedule, increase its programme of studies except after most careful consideration. "There also has been an insufficient cooperation between departments and between institutions. If all the depart- ments of an institution would agree to ask for no added appropriation for five years on condition that the salary schedule be then raised by a certain amount, the president could recommend a rise in quality as an alternative to a rise in number. In many things institutions might profit- ably cooperate. There does not seem, for example, any ne- cessity for two universities in the same city to give courses in Syriac. Even where large universities are separated by several hours' journey, they might well consider whether each of them should give courses in Icelandic, in Pali, and in Old Portuguese. A division of labor might well be ar- ranged in such subjects. 396 The Reorganization oj Our Colleges 11 Indeed this division of labor could be extended with profit into wider fields than a few recondite courses. If different institutions would cooperate, whereby one would provide an elaborate programme of studies for graduate students in, say, the physical sciences, another a similar spe- cialization in the mental sciences, and another similarly for the modern languages and literatures, and so on, there might be a decided gain for the welfare of American edu- cation as a whole. There would certainly be a gain in the pecuniary rewards of American professors." INDEX INDEX Accountant, should be in charge of finances, 22, 340, 341. Accounting systems, results of, 227- 234. See Bookkeeping. Activities, student, what are, 64, 65. Administration, present college sys- tem imperfect, 26, 27; and student life are like trained nurses, 30, 31; must be devel- oped, not carried, 35, 36; lack of, in fraternities, 100; would have foreseen evil results, 136; needed during expansion of colleges, 153, 154; important in college work, 163; its nature and growth, 165, 166; is an atmosphere and science, 165- 167, 177-179; how it treats new problems, 166-172; col- leges err as to, 168-173; il- lustrated by cigar company, 169-171; difference between pedagogy and, 170-172; diffi- culties of, not relatively great in colleges, 171-173; in other corporations, 172, 173; how regarded in colleges, 173-180; power of, 172, 173; how re- garded in business, 173-175; should not be an adjunct to pedagogy, 168, 175, 180; ob- jects of, 179, 180; none in ear- lier colleges and times, 181, 182; variable factors in college found in, 182; need of, comes from an increase in numbers and intricacy, 201, 202; when absolutely necessary, 202, 203; how problems of, have in- creased in colleges, 201, 202; Admin istration Cont. requires cleavage into de- partments, 202; required by changes in colleges, 202-204; is an added expense without direct producing power, 205- 216, 352; on railroads and in construction work, 206; pre- ceptorial system is, 207; vari- ous kinds of agencies of, dis- cussed, 207-214; departments of, in a business, 209; how it has grown, 210; why col- lege must have, 210-212, 226; must be conducted by ex- perts, 211, 214; regulates in- ternal affairs, 212-214; re- sults of, at Columbia, 213, 214; must cover diversities of college and have common data, 219-222; how presidents and professors should study, 239; and the marking system, 245-257; publicity bureau, 280-288; character and course of head of, 297-306; motto of, 297; men demanded in, 298; how to be applied, 299-303; criticisms as to, 299-306; will insure good pedagogical re- sults, 300; and prevent jeal- ousy in faculties, 300-303 ; cost of, and how defrayed, 303- 306; will add to college funds, 305; training experts in, 298, 299 ; relation of, to student life, 307-312; must be coordinated, 307; and allow for differences in homes and colleges, 308- 312; must improve college community life and homes, 399 400 Index Administration Cont. 308-312; must arrange for rec- reation, 309; must train indi- viduals, 310; must insist on gymnastics and physical ex- aminations, 310; must rule by college sentiment, 312; must enforce college motto, 329, 330; will enforce good work in all departments, 338, 339; sep- arate department of, 352-362; an expense and nonproducer, 352; must be adapted to con- ditions and size of college, 353 ; is in experimental stage, 353; bureaus of administrative de- partment (i) of statistics and forms, 354, 355; (2) of college waste heap, 355; (3) of college activities, 356; (4) of college homes, 356; (5) of health and physical exercises, 356, 357; (6) of graduate field, 357; (7) of college plant, 357, 358; (8) of publicity, 358; (9) Mark Hopkins or personal equation bureau, 358-362; must con- serve character-building capi- tal and influence of teachers, 359-362; student must carry away impress of teacher, 359, 360; the true capital of the college, 360; influence upon freshmen, 361, 362; duties of head of, 362. See also Col- leges. Administrative, definition of, 313, SH. department. See Administra- tion. Advertising, principally through in- tercollegiate athletics and the effects thereof, 280-283. See Publicity. Alumni, duties in regard to frater- nities, 1 1 6; power in under- graduate affairs, 123; belief as to moral conditions, 136, 137; have worked out forms, prece- dents and records in athletics, Alumni Cont. 226, 227; experience with forms and blanks, 233-234; could help in studying college waste heap, 258, 265. See Fraternities. American college and university, new form of, 367-373. Amherst College, students in, from other states, 55, 56; honor sys- tem at, 78-80; value of fra- ternity property at, 100. Association of American Univer- sities, report of committee on membership, 6, 375. Athletics. See College Community Life, Intercollegiate Athletics. Atmosphere, the university is an; administration is an, 165. See College Atmosphere. Auditing. See Bookkeeping. Banks, New York, presidents of, 318. Banquets, heavy drinking at, 137. Bentley, R. C., 267. Blank forms, college does not use intelligently, 223; three kinds of, 223-230; as precedents in law, insurance policies, etc., 224-226; used in intercollegi- ate athletics, 225, 226; and the results therefrom, 226; to increase productive effective- ness and train experts, 226, 227; cost accounting system, 227-234; reports of railroads, 227-234; internal effect there- of, 228, 229; cost accounting, effect of, 229, 230; no checking off of departments in colleges, 230; attitude of business con- cerns toward, 230, 231; are prevalent everywhere, except in college, 231, 232; how lack of, weakens college, 231, 232; must not be made a fetish, 233; under marking system, 245-257; bureau of, 354, 355- Index 401 Boarding houses, college, 97, 98, 107-111, 350-352. See Col- lege Home. Boarding schools, atmosphere of, 94; vices in, 133, 134. Bookkeeping, growth from single entry to double entry, 215, 216; growth from double entry, 215, 216; college still in single en- try stage, 216; has provided new units of measurement, 217-219; can cover diversities in colleges, 219; present col- lege, based on a diploma, and does not analyze internal con- ditions, 220; crude, in one uni- versity, 220, 221; colleges should have the very best, 221, 222 ; nature of, in colleges, 222 ; results of accounting system, 227-234; in financial depart- ment, 340. Bowery Mission, 138. Briggs report, 197, 210, 211, 238, 337; is an inventory, 238. Buildings, too much should not be spent upon, 305, 306. Bureaus, different in college. See Administration. Busting out, 253, 277-279. Canfield, James H., quotations from report of, 17-19, 186, 266, 267. Capital, and income of colleges, 190; true, of the college, 360- 362; how conserved and used, 360-362; should be in liquid form, 305, 306. Carnegie, Foundation, 194, 199, 237, 286, 292-296, 378-380, 3 8 5-396; library gifts, 294- 296. Changes, in college conditions and methods, u, 203, 204. Character-building, 359-362. Children of college graduates, sta- tistics as to, 142. Cigars, combination in making of, 169, 170. Citizen, relation of, to the state or government, 40-43; students have same relations to college, 45, 46; how government and internal relations of colleges are to be studied, 49 ; most un- dergraduates, minors, 47; un- desirable, 7 1-73; training of, in student lif e, 1 1 6, 1 1 7 . See also Citizenship, Colleges, State. Citizenship, physical education in preparing for, 83-87; training for, 1 6, 17, 372, 373; course in, 364-366; most important in college, 364; should study col- lege conditions, and train for efficient citizens and practical politicians, 364, 365 ; previous failure in regard to, 365, 366. See also Citizen. Coach, canvassing athletic material by, 24; needs no examinations, 268, 269. Colleges, how word is used herein, 9, 10, 48; new form of, 367- 373; and universities, distinc- tion between, 6-8, 368, 369; change in nature of, 36-50; wealth and power of, 37; are political or municipal corpora- tions, 38, 39; quasi public, like railroads, 38, 39; gradual de- velopment to quasi municipal corporations, 40; relation of student citizen to, 40-47; how we must study parts of, 49; dissimilarity in, 44; objects of, 14-20, 153-157; now exer- cising public functions, and capstone of compulsory pub- lic-school system, 53, 54, 331, 332; boarding houses in, 97, 98, 107-111, 350-352; are public servants, like railroads, and should be under same control, 58; if they go astray, it is not merely a pedagogical matter, 59; close connection with state and its homes, par- ents, citizens, 59, 60; what 402 Index Colleges Cont. state aid to, implies, 55; duties toward state, 89; capital and income of, 100; increase of stu- dents of, 191, 192; overwork- ing teachers, 190-194; need liquid capital, 305, 306; need large income rather than large endowments, 304-306; aims and duties of, must be denned, 331; need patriotism for the state, and to train for citizen- ship, 332 , 333 ; number of, 205 ; how methods and fields of in- struction of, have changed, 204, 205 ; competition for num- bers, 194; should have best accounting system, 221, 222. See Administration, College, infra, Earlier Colleges, Peda- gogy, Reorganization. College, activities, 64, 65; bureau of, 356. administration. See Adminis- tration. administrative problems increase with size, 201-214. admission to, 278, 279; waiting list in, 275-279. atmosphere, importance of, 70- 74, 86-89, 122 > effect on young men, 137; good, must be as- sured, 351. authorities, have not studied their own conditions, 68, 69; re- sponsible for college vices, 128-131, 138-145. course, objectives of, 14-17. community life, nature of, 46- 49; not well differentiated in early college, 61-63; no longer a simple matter, 63, 64; covers a distinct life period, 64, 65; and recognized student activ- ities, 64; is important part of college education, 66-74; rep- resents the soil, 66-68; interest of college in, direct, 68; direct effect upon students of, 68; not understood by college author- College Cont. ities, 68, 69; close acquaint- ances in, 69; complete change from earlier times, 70; badly affected by course of colleges, 70, 71; tends to lower scholar- ship, 71 ; students go wrong in, 71; place in training for citi- zenship, 71-73; relation of ad- ministration to, 307-312; vari- ances in, 308-312; must be kept clean and inspiring, 310- 312; covers picked men, 348; politics in, 348, 349; compe- tition in, 350-352. See Stu- dent Life Department. departments of, 21-32. discipline. See Discipline. dormitories. See Dormitories. education, how words are used herein, 16; formerly a luxury, 51; and built up aristocracy, 52; final molding for citizen- ship, 220, 221 ; must be nation- alized, 372, 373; how its ele- ments have changed, 240-244; what it must be, 332-338; how we must individualize, 333- 338; soft culture courses, 334- 337; must hold up high ideals, 33 6 337J college must im- prove itself, 337, 338. See Education. field, must be studied, 240-244; bureau of, 357. See Field. finances should be under skilled accountants and reports be very full, 21-23,339-341. home life, how governed and re- formed, 40-43, 47-50; must reach personal habits through, 81, 82; like any other home, 90, 91; must exist in college, 90; every student has it, 90, 91; badly neglected, 91, 92; must be affected by permanent human influences, 92, 93; which must work from within, 92, 93; importance of restoring it to its proper place, 94; value Index 403 College Cont. in eyes of forefathers, 94, 95. See also Fraternities. Con- nection of, with college vices, 118-145. See College,, Vices. Undue importance often given to, 152-155; has been running wild, 155, 156; in connection with college temptations, 160, 161 ; forces of, overstimulated, 152-154; how effected by ad- ministration, 307-312; must allow for variance in, 307-310; good times in, 309; must be kept clean, 311, 312; rights and duties of college in, 311; how misunderstood, 328; cov- ers picked young men, 348; its social problems, 349; compe- tition between, 350; requisites of > 35 ! 35 2 ; the ideal college home, 352; parents and others should study, 352; bureau of college homes, 356. See Col- lege Community Life, Student Life Department. inventory, 235-239. life, how words are used herein, 9, 48; no longer a simple affair, 63, 64; covers a recognized life period, 64. marking system. See Marking System. methods, very crass, 258, 259. motto. See Motto. pedagogy. See Pedagogy. plant, study of, 235-239; inven- tory of, 235-239; how trusts take inventories, 235, 236; bu- reau of, 357, 358. president. See President. reorganization. See Reorgan- ization. temptations, importance of, 160, 161. training, how words are used herein, 16. See Citizenship, College Education. vices, reasons for discussion of, 118, 119; are moral, not legal College Cont. misdemeanors, 118, 119; how they should be studied, 119- 125; differ in different institu- tions at different times, 1 20, 1 2 1 ; affected by college atmosphere, 121-124; what they compre- hend, 124, 125; attitude of stu- dents toward, 125; caused by local and other conditions, 126-128; where most preva- lent, 126-128; make student life most important depart- ment, 127; danger of disease, 127, 128; counteracting, 128; made worse by authorities and alumni, 128-131 ; have not been properly studied, 129, 145; im- proper lectures, 129; growth because of lack of adminis- trative department, 130, 131; is there proof as to, 131-139; statement of medical depart- ments, 131, 132; affect the commonwealth, 132; instances of, 132-137; brought from preparatory schools, 133, 134; growth of drinking habit, 134-139; even in denomina- tional colleges, 135; drinking clubs, 135, 136; drinking at commencement and alumni and fraternity banquets, 136- 138; how these vices are re- garded by railroads and other corporations, 134, 138; effect on young boys, 137; and on college graduates, 138; posi- tion of authorities as to, 139; discussion from point of reor- ganizer, 139, 140, 144; and of duty to state, 140-145; as af- fecting future of graduates, 142; touch every home in state, 142, 143; colleges should pre- vent, 143, 144- waste heap, and college vices, 121, 138; size of, 184; how to be studied, 258-265; how man- ufacturers study their waste 404 Index College Cont. products, 258, 259; what com- posed of, 259-261; waste of costly products stopped in fac- tories, but not in colleges, 260, 261 ; purposes of study of, 261, 262; how conditions will be analyzed, 260-262; we should rate institutions according to size of, 263; governmental bu- reau to help study, 263, 264; and demand annual account- ing, 264, 265; bureau of, 355. See also Colleges. Columbia, size in 1850, 30; student government at, 77, 380; value of fraternity property at, 100; pay of teachers at, 197; results of business methods in, 2 1 3, 2 1 4. Commencement, drinking at, 136, 137; enthusiasm at, 152. Commonwealth. See State. Community life, how governed and reformed, 40-42; importance of, 373. See also College Community Life. Cost of administrative department, 303-306. Cost accountant, 212, 340. Cost accounting, how it has grown, 216-222; absolutely necessary in colleges, 216-222; results of, 227-234. Credit man, 212. Culture courses, growth of, in state universities, 8, 9. See Soft Culture Courses. Dartmouth, under first president, 182, 183. Debts of cities and states, 37. Definition of college and university, 6,368,369,377-. Denominational institutions, col- lege vices in, 123, 124, 135; lack of uniformity in, 292. Differentiation, of administrative departments, 202; in college departments, 211, 212, 338, 339, 363- Diploma, universal value of col- lege, 56; on the marking-sys- tem basis, 251; meaning and value of present, 310, 328, 332, 365; studying for, 334-338- See Marking System. Discipline, in earlier colleges, 181- 184; in the reorganized college, 270-274; will follow planes of college life, 270, 271; story of mouse, 270, 271; not under- stood, arbitrary and autocrat- ic, 271-274; story of student flunked in gymnastics, 272; bad results of present system, 274. Dormitories, not being built by state universities, 97; many colleges have none, 97-99; cost of, 98-100; ideal size of, 106, 107, 115; in coeducational college, no. See also College Home Life, Fraternities. Double-entry bookkeeping, 215- 222. Drunkenness. See College Vices. Earlier colleges, tutors' connection with home life of, 31; charac- teristics of, 36, 45; trained scriptural contra versialists, 5 r ; right to education determined by parents or church, 54; com- munity and home life in, 61- 63, 69, 70; care of personal habits in, 61-63; founded on private schools, 195, 196; marking system in, 245, 246, 256, 257; presidents of, 314. Education, now scientific and spe- cialized, 52; universal and compulsory, 54; enormous ex- penditures for, 55-59; much now falsely so called, 183, 184; often, does not look for facts, 217. See College Education. United States Department of, 263-265. Elective system, 171. Eliot, President, 122, 203-205, 217. Index 405 English grammar schools, report upon, 17-19. Evidence, as to college vices, 118- 120, 131-139. Examinations, in reorganized col- lege, 266-269. Executive, how it was evolved, 313; definition of, 313, 314. department, 27. See President. Factory, accountant in financial de- partment, 340; practice, 188- 198. Field, of the reorganized college; how business men study their field, 240; change in college field, 240, 241; necessitates administrative improvements, 241-243; how one factory stud- ied its field, 241-243; students handicapped because college has not studied its field, 243, 244. Financial department of college, 21-23, 2I 7 220 22I 5 h w accounts in, are to be kept, 339 ; should have expert factory ac- countant, 340; cost system in, 340, 341- Flexner, Abraham, "The American College," 25, 198. Flogging, at Harvard, 63. Forms. See Blank Forms. Football, its prominence and mot- to, 326-330; growth not acci- dental, 327; what its motto means, 329. See Intercollegi- ate Athletics. Fraternities, canvassing freshmen, 24; and the college home, 96-145; houses of, came when college neglected college homes, 96, 97; distinction be- tween their houses and college boarding houses, 96-98; cost of houses of, 98; have changed center of gravity of student body, 99; own typical homes of ordinary college, 99; value of their properties, 99, 100; Fraternities Cont. will soon enter home-making stage, 99, 100; field secretary of, and results of his work, 101, 102; what this experiment has proved, 102, 103; best point from which to study student conditions, 102, 105; all fra- ternities can do good like work, 103, 104; panhellenism, power of alumni in homes, 104, 105; alumni in nonfraternity colleges, 105, 1 06; importance of, 106-108; colleges should provide for nonfraternity men, 107-114; provide homes, not barracks, 107-109; have done something, colleges nothing, 109-112; have made some rec- ords, in, 112; give social training, 112, 113; growth of, not accidental, 113, 114, 326, 327; life in, concealed, 114, 115; moral tendencies some- times bad, 115-117; training for citizenship, 116, 152; re- lation to high-school fraterni- ties, 117. See also College Vices. Drinking at banquets of, 137; unregulated, 153, 154; hence have disturbed colleges, 171; marking system for those endeavoring to learn standing of undergraduates, 246-250; duties of, 311-312; competi- tion between, 350-352. See College Home Life. French Lyce"es, 17-19. Freshmen, how cared for, 24, 25-, 361, 362. Garfield, President, ideal of a uni- versity, 341. Germanization, of colleges, 171. Germany, gymnasium and univer- sity in, 194, 195; length of her educational courses, 244; teacher in university of, power of, 333- Gymnastics, compulsory, 310. 406 Index Hadley, James, 245. Harper, William R., 8. Harvard, size of early classes, 30; why founded, 45; flogging at, 63; pay of teachers at, 197; changes of methods and fields of instruction at, 204, 205; lack of intelligible marks in, 246; earlier presidents of, 314; use of Latin at, 336; financial system in, 340. Health and physical exercises, bu- reau of, 356, 357. High schools, growth and improve- ment of, 9; influence of student life department upon, 161, 162; fraternities at, 117. Home, importance of, 373; college, see College Home Life. Honor system, at Amherst, 78-80. Hopkins, Mark, 341; bureau, 358- 362. Human agents, affecting college home, 92. Ideal, of reorganized college, 325- 330. See Motto. Insurance, use of forms and prece- dents in, 224, 225; regulation of, 212; companies in New York, presidents of, 317, 318. Intercollegiate athletics, part of college community life, 75, 82- 89; used largely for advertis- ing, 83; should be for develop- ment, 83, 84; maintenance of health, 85; preparation for life, 85; and recreation, 86, 87; should not interfere with other duties, 87; should be largely governed by human agent, 88, 89; results of not regulating, 171; dominance of, 151, 152, 155-162; use of forms, prece- dents and records in, 224, 225; possible only because rules and records are standardized, 255; coach needs no examina- tions, 268, 269; have been chief method of advertising, Intercollegiate athletics Cant. 280, 281; results thereof, 281, 282. See also College Com- munity Life. Inventory of the college, 235-239. Jackson, Helen Hunt, 35. Jesse, President, 87, 88. Judson, Harry Pratt, 106. Law, use of forms and precedents in, 224, 225. Lincoln, Abraham, 297, 365. Looking backward, 35. Manufacturer, how he studies his plant, 188-194; his field, 240- 244; and waste products, 258- 265. Marking system, diploma, 150, 158, 159; units under, 218; use of, in earlier times, 245, 246; story of Professor Hadley, 245, 246; present system valueless, 246; proposed new form of, 246- 250; must be fitted into com- plete system, 250, 251; how it should be used, 251-257; plan of, in a Western university, 251, 252; must be backed by administration, 251, 253; driv- ing sheep to Omaha, 253; results of proper system, 254- 257; should be standardized, like athletics, 255-257; and made clear to students, 256; attitude of faculty toward, 256, 257. See Diploma. Marks, meaning of, in college, 328, 33 2 - McClure's Magazine, extract from, McKinley, President, 365. Medical courses, changes in, 243, 244. Medical schools and lectures, 129, I3 1 . *3 2 - Methods, changes of, in universi- ties and colleges, 203-205. Index 407 Michigan, University of, propor- tion of college students in, 8. Ministry, falling off in candidates for, 91, 92. Moralist, point of view of , 144, 145. Motto, of reorganized college, 225- 230; must select one for all in- stitutions, 325; importance of football, 326; growth of foot- ball not accidental, 326, 327; football investment of colleges, 327, 328; "Team work, hard work and good work," what it means in the world, in foot- ball and college, 328-330; must be enforced by adminis- trative department, 329, 330; of college administrative de- partment, 297. Mouse, story of, 270, 271. Municipal corporations, colleges are quasi, 36-40; ownership, Names of colleges and universities, why not used herein, u. New York City, presidents of in- surance companies and banks in, 317, 318. Nonfraternity, colleges, conditions in, 105, 106; members, 105- 114, 310. Nursing, trained, relation to medi- cine, 30, 31. Oberlin, financial system in, 340. Omaha, driving sheep to, 253. Panhellenism, 104. Parable of the Sower and the Seed, 66-68. Parents, should investigate student- life conditions, 121, 122; in- terest of, in student life, 158; should contribute to adminis- tration cost, 304-306; should study college home, 352; pow- er of, in reorganizing colleges, 373- Park, Professor, 358, 359. Peabody, Endicott, 94. Pedagogical department, in reor- ganized college, 341-347; must improve teachers and teaching, 341, 342; must put premium on fine teaching capacity, 342 ; must reward and promote good teachers, 342, 343; award its own honors, 343, 344; and guard star teachers, 344; ped- agogy must assert itself, 344, 345; and learn college motto, 346, 347. See Pedagogy. Pedagogy, college, has abandoned many functions, 35, 36; at present poor, 23-26; story of law student, 23, 24; no coach- ing as with fraternities and athletics, 24, 25; criticism by Flexner, 25; should be pure and simple, 29; overdevelop- ment of forces of, 149-151; real position of, 158, 159; does not use forms, blanks, prece- dents and accounting, 230- 234; difficulties arising there- from, 231-234; responsible for the college waste heap, 260- 265; why it cannot handle col- lege administration, 299-303; and pedagogical methods, 169- 172. See Colleges, Pedagogical Department, Teacher. Pennsylvania lines, 189. Personal habits, to be reached by college homes, 81, 82. Phi Beta Kappa, 150. Physical culture, how changed, 280, 281. Physical education in college, ob- jects of, 83-87. Physical examinations, compul- sory, 310. Power of a man, 88, 89. Precedents, use of, 223-227. See Blank Forms. Preceptorial system at Princeton, 207. Preparatory schools, fraternities in, 117; vices in, 133. 408 Index President, in the reorganized col- lege, executive head, 313; du- ties and functions as such, 313- 321; in earlier colleges, 314; how he will help college per- form its duty, 316, 317; will bring things to pass, 317; must be executive rather than technical head, 317, 318; ex- amples from New York insur- ance companies and banks, 317, 318; must have good cabi- net, 318, 319; must regard his health, 320; must have no di- vided responsibility, 318-321; his training and duties, 362, 3 6 3- Price lists, uniform, 291. Primary unit of reorganized college, 185-199. Princeton, size in 1850, 30; pre- ceptorial system at, 207. Professions, learned, how they have changed, 240-244. Public schools, expenditures for, 53-57; now educate most of college students, 55, 56. Publicity, bureau of, in the reor- ganized college, 280-288; how colleges have advertised here- tofore, 280, 281; story of re- formatory, 281, 282; scope and work of, 283-288; will promote college economy, 286-288; how colleges have avoided, 286, 287; urged upon colleges, 287, 288; duties of, 358. Railroads, early turnpike, 38, 30; how chartered and consoli- dated, 38-40; enforce total ab- stinence, 134; growth of ad- ministrative departments of, 206; construction foremen of, 206, 207; accounts and an- nual reports of, 227-234, 263- 265; how standardized, 289, 290. Records, use of, in athletics, 225, 226. Recreation, important in college athletics, 85, 86. Reformatory, atmosphere of, how changed, 281, 282. Reserve funds, 188-194. Reorganization, of colleges, from what standpoint to be consid- ered, 3, 4; on usual lines of business and corporate af- fairs, 4, 5; complicated by high schools and technical schools, 9; need of, admitted, 12; needed because of failure to organize and coordinate all departments, 13; demanded, 140, 142-145; what it implies, 363; first essential of, 185, 186; teacher, primary unit, 186, 187; must follow factory prac- tice, 187, 1 88; importance of keeping plant in order, 188- 192; sinking, depreciation and other reserve funds, 189, 194; how plant to be conserved, 190-192; overtaxing teachers, 190-194; increase of students, 191, 192; decrease of average income, 192, 193; strain on faculty, 190-194; disadvan- tages of college professors, 196- 199; must use blank forms and precedents, 223-234; study and care of college plant, 235-239; must study college field, 240- 244; studying the college waste heap, 258-265; exam- inations, 266-269; discipline, 270-274; waiting list, 275- 279; advertising and publicity, 280-288; standardization and uniformity, 289-296; further suggestions as to administra- tive department, 297-306; re- lation of administration to student life, 307-312; the president, 313-321; motto and ideal, 325-330; resume"; key- note of, 33 1-366. See Colleges. Reorganizer, point of view of, 139, 140, 144, 145. Index 409 Rivalry between and within insti- tutions, how promoted, 255. Scholarliness, its meaning, 150, 151, 157-162. Scholarship, what it means, 149, 1 50, 157-162. See Marking System. Schurman, President, 107. Sciences, how to be studied, 178, 179. Sheep, driving, to Omaha, 253. Single-entry bookkeeping, 215-222. Sleeping sickness, 167. Social evil. See College Vices. Soft culture courses, 251, 328, 334- Sower and the Seed, Parable of, 66-68. Standard Oil Company, illustra- tions from, 172, 213, 258. Standardization, of athletic rules and records, 255; of railroad gauge, 289; and other equip- ment and methods, 289-291; uniform price list and mechan- ical details, good effects there- of, 291, 292; evil effects from lack of, in colleges, 292; lack of, in colleges illustrated, 292- 294; how brought about, 294- 296. See Uniformity. State, relation of the college to, 51- 60; duties of college toward, 89, 140-145; cannot assume col- lege functions, 143; conditions in ideal, 147, 148; colleges should train citizens of, 148, 149; embryo citizens of, 154, 155; citizenship great object of college, 157; leaders are from college graduates, 161; improved conditions from standardization in colleges, 294-296; rights of, as to ped- agogical department, 302; du- ties of college to, kept in view by president, 313-321. See Citizen, Student Government. State aid to colleges, 55, 295, 354, 355, 373- State universities, growing faster than private institutions, 8, 9; how cost of administration to be paid, 304. Statistics, bureau of, 354, 355. Student activities, what are, 64, 65. See College Community Life. Student citizen, rights of, 274. See Citizen, Citizenship. Student government, growth of, 50; should train for citizenship, 75-7 7 81-83; wrong view of, 76, 77; can be made success- ful, 77, 78; Columbia's experi- ment in, 77, 380; Amherst's honor system, 78-80; statistics as to, 80, 81. See Citizen. Student life department, must be developed, not carried, 35, 36; comprises ninety per cent of student's time, 27, 28; value of home factors in, 28, 29; importance of, 146-162; reme- dying evils of, 146; directly af- fects future citizenship, 148- 162; predominance of college community and home life forces, 149-162; overdevelop- ment of college pedagogy, community or home life, 149 154; scholarliness, 150, 151; value in training future citi- zen, 151-153; danger of not regulating, 153, 154; running wild, 155, 156; citizenship, 156-162; citizenship, chief aim of, 156, 157; importance of, in eyes of students and parents, 158, 159; requires good administration, 159, 160; college temptations, 160, 161; trains leaders, 161, 162; quite outside of pure pedagogy, 162; how misunderstood, 328; is dealing with picked young men, 348; politics in, 348, 349; college should study its own problems, 349; duties of fra- ternities, 349-352; competi- tion in, 350-352; the college 4io Index Student life department Cont. barracks, 350, 351: college home-making, 351, 352; func- tions of, 351. See Colleges, College Community Life, Fra- ternities, Intercollegiate Ath- letics, Student Government. Surety bonds, what required to get, 138- Tabernacle, lecture by college president upon, 51, 52. Taft, William H., 351. Teacher, how must be regarded in college, 341-347. See Peda- gogical Department, Peda- gogy. New primary unit, 185- 199; is part of college plant, 1 86; easily goes stale, 186, 187; needs good factory practice, 187-191; is of primary impor- tance, 188-194; how to be conserved, 189-194; waste of, at present, 191-194; over- worked, 100-194; should be better rewarded, 193, 194; under German system, 194, 195; in earlier colleges, 195, 196; assistant, 196, 197; should be kept at highest efficiency, 198; direct power of, upon student, 359-362; teaching, what it is, 181, 182. See Ped- agogy. Team work, hard work and good work, 326-330, 339, 346, 347, 35 2 3 2 - Technical schools, complicate re- organization, 9. Temptations of college, 160, 161. Theology, changes in, 51, 52. Thwing, Charles F., College Ad- ministration, 27. Trade unions, 301, 302, 345, 346. Training for citizenship, how words used herein, 73. See Citizen. Trustees, board of, duties of, 316, 363- Undesirable citizen, 71-73. Uniformity, lack of, complications Uniformity Cont. from, 7, io, n, 219, 220; as to prevalence of college vices, 121, 122. United States Department of Edu- cation, 263-265. United States Interstate Commerce Commission, 228234, 263- 265. United States Steel Corporation, il- lustrations from, 172, 179, 189. Units, different kinds of, under single- and double-entry book- keeping, 217-222; marking system as, 218; colleges must find new, 218, 219. University, how word is used here- in, io ; shifting of center of, 7, 8; should be leader, 17-19; its dudes to state, students and officers, 18, 19; and college, distinction between, 6-8, 377; no sympathy between depart- ments of, 203; has grown in a casual way, 203, 204; new form of, 367-373. See Col- leges. Waiting list in the reorganized col- lege, 275-279. Waste, from lack of administration, 205; unnecessary, in prepara- tory schools, 244. See Col- lege Waste Heap. Waste pile. See College Waste Heap. Water Street Mission, 138. Wealth and power of colleges, 37. Wheelock, President, of Dart- mouth, 182, 183. Williams, students in, from other states, 55, 56. Wilson, Woodrow, 115. Who's W r ho in America, 161. Yale, why founded, 45; story of James Hadley, 245, 246; ear- lier presidents of, 314, 315. Young Men'- Christian A~ tion, 88; connection with col- lege home, 93. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. REC'D LD SEP U '65 -5PM General Library University of California Berkeley I D UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY